


Sinbound Heart

by JoJoTalia, Poison_Cherub



Category: Creepypasta - Fandom
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood and Gore, Blood and Injury, Blood and Torture, Blood and Violence, Broken Bones, Canon-Typical Violence, Doctor/Patient, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, Execution, F/M, Hospitalization, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Memory Loss, Minor Character Death, Minor Original Character(s), Murder, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Original Character Death(s), Original Character(s), Romance, Slow Burn, Torture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-23
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-15 19:46:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 26
Words: 47,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28943910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoJoTalia/pseuds/JoJoTalia, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Poison_Cherub/pseuds/Poison_Cherub
Summary: Drip. Drip.Fingers clenching the unforgiving steel of the chair.Drip. Drip.Lips parted, struggling to fill burning lungs with air.Drip. Drip.A crooked smile fixed upon her bruised face, thinking of the agony she’d inflict on her wrongdoers.Drip. Drip.Suddenly, red lights begin to flicker as a screeching alarm wails.It’s time.
Relationships: Eyeless Jack/Reader, Eyeless Jack/You
Comments: 3
Kudos: 26





	1. Chapter 1

The crunching of the snow beneath (Y/N)'s boots was more satisfying than she'd admit. It was unlikely for so much snow to penetrate the canopy of the trees that sheltered the Slender Forest, and she couldn't enjoy it when she was outside because she would be spotted. The twenty-five-year-old woman (at least physically) had to go looking through the woodlands to find the corpse of a reporter. It had already been on another proxy's agenda to neutralize them, but a Creepypasta, she couldn't remember which one, had done the job for them. Of course, they couldn't be bothered to clean up their mess, leaving (Y/N) the job. luckily for her, the snow drowned out all other scents, so she'd be able to find the blood easily. And in addition to that she wouldn't have to clean blood, only scoop up the small amounts that had been defiled with it.

After a bit more wandering, the iron scent nearly knocked her off her feet. Kate the Chaser was supposed to meet her there to help her, but instead she saw a different colleague. Kate was supposed to meet her since the body was located between both of their proxy houses, but the woman standing before her was on the other side of Kate. She must've come a long way.

"Anya! Is Kate with you?" (Y/N) called out. Anya turned around, ducking as deep as she could into the jacket she brought.

"No, apparently there was some urgent meeting that required the executive proxies." She grumbled, jealous that she had to walk miles in the snow while they skipped out.

There was a hierarchy in everything, and the proxies under the charge of Slenderman were no different. At the top were the executive proxies; Ticci Toby, Masky, Hoodie, and Kate the Chaser. These proxies were the second in line, with only the Master being above them. They carried out important tasks, such as neutralization of witness, investigations, and disciplines for Creepypasta. They of course had power over lower proxies, but they wouldn't bother unless they were involved with their missions or stood in the way. Then, a more recent branch was created that included (Y/N) and Anya, the supervisor branch. This branch also included two other men, Casey Goodwin and Ramses Nguyen. Their job was to be the little helpers to the executives, which usually entailed collecting the bodies of suspicious individuals to make sure they were deceased, collecting suspects, and taking care of the lower ranks. The last was what they spent most of their days doing however, while the rest were occasional thankfully. After that, were the employee proxies. They had their own hierarchy among them, but it was long and confusing.

"So that means we'll have something dumped on us pretty soon?" (Y/N) rolled her eyes in annoyance.

"Probably. Not much we can do about it now, let's just get this body transported so we don't have to be out here longer than needed."

"Aren't you from Russia? I thought you'd have more tolerance to it." (Y/N) looked at the continuous snowflakes descending as she spoke.

"Just because I can tolerate it, doesn't mean I like it." She replied coldly.

(Y/N) didn't bother continuing the chit chat after that and went about taking pictures for the reporter's file. Once they finished taking the report, they covered the body in a tarp and threw it into a wheelbarrow, starting their walk to the mansion where the Master resided.

"Hey (Y/N), apparently this woman had a child." Anya started, (Y/N) immediately noticed the softer tone she held.

"Yeah, why'd you bring it up?"

"It's sad, maybe that child would still have had a mother if she kept out of all of this."

"Maybe, but we all make our own decisions. Just because hers had a worse consequence than she thought means nothing to us." (Y/N)'s voice was made of steel, mostly to protect her own emotions from feeling sorry for the unfortunate human they were dragging.

"You were a nurse, where's your compassion?"

"I left it at the hospital when I was kidnapped and forced to slave away for Slenderman."

"Good point," Anya paused, "I guess you're right though, even if the reality is grim."

Roughly an hour later, the two women reached the mansion. The mansion only housed the Creepypasta and Slenderman, but it wasn't abnormal to find proxies drifting through it at all hours. Naturally, the executives were there the most, while the employees were there the least. (Y/N) recalled when she was an employee proxy, how she'd nearly tremble with fear at the possibility of having to go to the mansion. The Creepypastas loved to terrorize proxies, and employees were the most fun because of their ignorance, which culminated into fear. Now that she was older, a couple of unstable freaks didn't fry her nerves as easily as before. However, they loved to cause mischief that often got in the way of her plans, so she was holding out that the same wouldn't happen today.

"You mind staying out here while I go in? I'll get a gurney and tell the Master we're here." Anya said, brushing a pale hand through her long dirty-blonde hair

"Go ahead, unlike you I can handle a little cold." (Y/N) teased.

Anya narrowed her blue-grey eyes at (Y/N) playfully but disappeared inside without response. With a sigh, (Y/N) sat on the railing of the small porch, dangling her legs like a child over the edge. Even beneath the jeans and thermal pants she wore, she could feel the cold biting her legs. Pulling up the collar of her quilted jacket, she watched as the snow collected on the tarp covering the body. Moments passed and Anya came back, with possibly the world's rustiest stretcher. The two struggled momentarily, before they both felt the weight being much lighter almost instantly. The two glanced over to see the one and only Kate the Chaser, her thin black hair fell down from beneath her white hood. The black smudge covered mask was looking down at the body instead of at them, so the two proceeded to unwrap the corpse and disperse it onto the stretcher.

"Thanks for the help, Kate. It would've taken us forever otherwise." Anya said with gratitude.

"Of course, I need to get back though. Anya, you can come with me to put the file away, and (Y/N) can take the body down to EJ." Kate gave her orders and returned inside, but Anya lingered at the door.

"Sucks to be you, he's going to make you stay while he mutilates the body for food."

"I know, and I'll have to incinerate what's left." A shiver rushed down (Y/N)'s spine.

Anya went inside completely with (Y/N) and closed the door behind them. They parted once Anya reached the staircase in the foyer the two said a final goodbye and split up. (Y/N) continued her way through the maze of decaying hallways until she reached EJ's and took in a wavering breath to prepare herself.

_____  
note: in this fic I won't be writing Ticci Toby's tics and stutters, however they still happen.


	2. Chapter 2

Eyeless Jack was one of the only Creepypastas that still got to her after all these years. Mostly because he wasn’t like the rest, he was stable compared to them. His practices, however, were, in her opinion, the most maddening of them all. The eyeless man was a surgeon while he was human and continued some of the most inhumane experiments she had ever heard of in his hospital like room. Technically, it was two rooms connected to each other, both had a door on the outside leading to the hall and one connecting them on the inside. Over the years, (Y/N) had to visit the doctor, sometimes with others and sometimes it was her own injuries.

When (Y/N) was first taken, she had spent a month’s time with the doctor. One of the other Creepypastas, Jane the Killer if she remembered correctly, had been seriously injured and needed the aid of two medical professionals. So, like anyone else would do, they snatched up a nurse taking a smoke break and brought her back to the mansion. (Y/N) couldn’t remember the first months of her time, she would go from being in shock to helping Jane and begging for her life, just for it all to happen again the next day. When she finally accepted that she’d die in that poor excuse for a hospital room, she was offered to become a proxy since they could use her medical experience. Foolishly, she took it. All she wanted was to live, and in pursuit of that biological wish she made a deal with the devil. If you had asked the woman now if she would’ve taken the choice, she’d prefer whatever death they gave her.

(Y/N) had no wish to return to that horrid room, but if it was a direct order from Kate, she had no wiggle room to refuse. (Y/N) landed a hard knock on the door, hearing shuffling behind the door. She wouldn’t have been lucky enough for Jack to be out.

“Who is it?” A deep, but smooth voice called out. Coming from none other than the eyeless demon himself.

“Supervisor (Y/N). I’m here for the examination of a target’s corpse.”

The door swung open, the white lights from the room flooded the hall. The sterile smell rushed (Y/N)’s senses. The only thing among the harsh white room was Eyeless Jack. He had the lean figure of a 5’11 man. He was no man at all, but instead some abominable version of an eldritch creature. He wore a deep blue mask that lacked any features, save for two black eyes holes that had cloth concealing his sockets. Rivers of slow dripping tar descended from the eye holes, reaching his chin but never dripping unless he was feeding. The feeding was horrendous, and the several times (Y/N) had been forced to witness it had driven her sanity to the brink of snapping. He would devour all kinds of human organs sloppily, a horrific mix of small chunks of meat, blood, and tar would gather on the ground beneath him and stain his black hoodie. Her stomach churned at the simple thought of his feeding, the sounds of flesh tearing reverberating in the otherwise silent room. From glimpses she’d stolen of his dinners, the creature had short brown hair that was usually tucked away completely into his hood.

(Y/N) shoved into the stretcher to push it into the room, pausing in the center as Jack drug a metallic cart filled with a variety of medical tools. However, their use wouldn’t have a purpose for doing anything besides desecrating a corpse. While Jack removed the tarp and prepared for the harvest of the body, (Y/N) sought out and found a small folding chair, propping it against one of the plain walls, giving you a clear view of the procedure. She wouldn’t need it though, she had no plans to watch, instead she retrieved a small notebook and miniature pen from her jacket pocket. It was a small sketchbook given to her by Casey, and ever since she filled its pages with sketches. Ever since she first became a proxy, she often experienced short-term memory loss. Regardless of her drawing capability, she would recreate scenes from her days to help her remember, and she knew just the picture she wanted to make.

(Y/N)’s pen scratched and flew fluidly across the small paper, small black lines appeared over and over again, then connected together to create the snowy scene she saw earlier. Just like how she saw it, reporter corpse and all. At first, she only drew a generic body, but the urge to detail it further caused her to look up at the body on the metal bed. As she looked up to see the reporter, her hand clenched to a fist around the pen. Standing up suddenly, she dropped the notebook and pen onto the seat of the chair.

Her sudden movement caused Jack’s head to snap towards her, watching her move. All the girl did, however, was traipse to side of the bed opposite to Jack. Before her laid the woman she found in the woods, how she had been so cold to Anya regarding her fate. For a moment, it was as if her humanity had returned to her. Seeing the chest of someone split open right down the middle, broken ribs protruding outwards with snapped off pieces discarded off to the side. Her chest cavity was a massive gap, missing nearly all its internal organs. Her spine could be seen in the rear of the hole if you peered hard enough through the blood that covered everything in a thick coating.

“Don’t tell me you’ve never seen something like this before, nurse.” Jack sneered, taking the jars of the organs he collected and storing them away in large medical refrigerator.

“This is disgusting.” Was her only reply, as her face scrunched up in a scowl.

“To you, perhaps. Though to me it’s a work of art.” His voice somehow held sickening soothing tone while he casually walked to the shell of a human and caressed her cold face.

“How could it be art? Art is many things, but this,” she paused to throw her hand in the direction of the body, “this is just destruction.”

“Maybe if you spent time watching instead of wallowing away in your little notebook, you could see that there really is art in destruction. Regardless of how humans were created, they were done so with such unique and fragile detail. It’s almost ironic how so much beauty is tucked away in a place we could never look ourselves; unless you fancy the idea of cutting yourself open for a peak?” His chilling voice didn’t pair well with the grisly scene in front of him.

“Well, if you’re done giving me insight to your twisted philosophy, I’d like to get the remains to the incinerator.” (Y/N) kept her voice even and collected, even if everything in her mind was telling her to run for the hills away from this creep.

“Oh, yes. I forgot about needing to incinerate targets. Such a waste, I’m sure some beast in the woods would enjoy an already hunted dinner.” Jack chuckled.

“I guess so. But rules are rules, and I’m not gonna put my neck on the line for some animal to have a snack.” Covering the body the best she could with the plastic tarp, she pressed the cart out of the door that Jack had courteously opened for her.

“I suppose that’s true, Slenderman doesn’t permit the same freedoms to his slaves as he does us.”

“Proxies, not slaves. And for your information, the master gives us more than enough freedom.” (Y/N) snarled under her breath once in the hallway.

“Coming from the girl who got kidnapped, you sound like you respect him a fair amount. Care to explain why?” Jack questioned arrogantly while leaning against the door frame with his arms crossed.

“No, I don’t want to. I need to get my job done, bye.”

Eyeless Jack’s laugh seemed to follow her even as she had completely left the hallway he occupied. It was a mirthless laugh, one that made her senses linger on edge long after the encounter. Attempting to expel the thoughts of the chilling mission, she pressed on through the hallways and was pleased to reach the incinerator without further incident.


	3. Background Chapter

(Y/N) flipped through the channels, none of them quite piqued her interest. The fourteen-year-old couldn’t be bothered to get up and find something interesting to do. On top of that, the withered couch she was sitting on offered her no support, quite the opposite actually. Her body grew stiff after a while, and right as she finally decided to get up, a familiar smell of cheap cigarettes wafted through the air. The one thing that could mean was that her mom came home. Back from where, (Y/N) didn’t know, but she was back.

“(Y/N), sit back down.” Her mother ordered, plopping herself on the seat beside her. She threw a ripped open envelope onto (Y/N)’s lap.

“Cool, it’s my report card. What about it?” the girl questioned, no interest in the subject.

“Yeah, and it’s trash. You’re barely scrapping by.”

“So? You don’t get on Noah case about his grades.” (Y/N) retorted.

“That’s the thing.” her mother sighed and ran a hand through her hair, “Listen baby, you don’t want to be like me when you grow up.” She reached out and clasped (Y/N)’s hands tight in her lap, looking her daughter deep in the eyes. “I didn’t give a damn about my schooling, and I’m too old to change that. But you can. Go on, be the first person in our family to go make something for yourself.” Tears welled in her eyes as she dropped (Y/N)’s hands and stood up. “(Y/N), my mother was worse than me. Never gave me the time of the day, I raised myself on the streets. I don’t want that for you. I have to wake up every damn day to go to a job I can’t stand with snakes for people. You don’t have to, go get an education so you can go work somewhere where you can wake up everyday and feel like you make a difference!” Her mother raised her voice, hoping that her passion laced words would penetrate the thick skull of her child.

And with that, (Y/N)’s mother left the room. She had never been like that, the same woman who was a forever drunk never supported either of her children, especially academically. And she never did again after that, she didn’t have to. (Y/N) took her words to heart that night, and even used them to try convincing her older brother, but the then nineteen-year old had no desire to even try a community college. You just can’t help everyone, but she could definitely help herself. When (Y/N) graduated, she received both her diploma and her associate’s degree. She breezed through med-school, as surprising as that was, and was hired by a hospital a few cities away from home. (Y/N) was forever thankful to that one night her mother’s words found her before she made the mistake of throwing away her studies.

“You settling in okay? I’m sorry again that I couldn’t come help you unpack, work never lets me get away.”

(Y/N) held the phone between her shoulder and ear before responding, “No worries, I can manage it. Plus, traffic up here is horrible.”

“God, it can’t be worse than it is here.”

“That’s what I thought, how wrong I was!” The two women laughed at the chit chat they made.

“Welcome to adulthood, traffic sucks.”

“I’ve been an adult for seven years though, mom.”

Her mother laughed, “You should visit home some time when you have the time, you haven’t visited back since when?” her mother asked eagerly.

“I think it was my first year of college, I came home for my winter break. I’d love to come visit, and I’ll try but I can’t make any promises.” (Y/N) responded bleakly.

“Right, that flu is going on. I heard hospitals are swamped because of it.”

“Mhm, but hospitals are always busy. Everyone is paranoid that a sneeze means they have it, so they rush down here. It’ll probably blow over by the time it becomes old news.”

“People dying isn’t old news.” Her mother retorted.

“I get that, but it’s the swine flu. It sucks to get as an adult, but it’s only fatal to young children and elderly. I’m just happy the infected kiddos aren’t going to pediatric doctors; it could spread like wildfire in those waiting rooms.” The young woman explained.

“Just be sure to not catch it yourself, you need to be healthy to help others. It’s late and I need to go make dinner, good luck finishing up on your packing.”

“I will, thanks mom. I have a shift tonight anyways; I’ll call you tomorrow night.”

If only either woman had been aware that those words would be the last that they would exchange with each other. If only (Y/N)’s mother could wish her luck once more. If only the daughter could tell her ‘I love you’ one last time.

The drive to the hospital she worked at was no where near interesting. (Y/N) moved closer just for simplicity, and she’d be able to pick up more shifts to advance in her career. Everything else, was the same. The same gray Honda Civic she had been driving since she was sixteen. The same highways and roads. Hell, even the same buses passed by her each morning, going about their routes. When she arrived, she was brought to look after a teenager with minor injuries who had been in a car accident and was just resting up to heal. It was an easy job to start her eight-hour night shift off with, just keeping the patient company and making sure to bring him what he needed. Two hours in, (Y/N) got dismissed for a fifteen-minute break. Throwing on a heavy wool jacket to combat the cold, she headed out to the one exit on her wing without a camera. (Y/N) may have turned her life around, but one nasty habit she couldn’t seem to shake was her smoking. If anyone, a nurse should know the dangers of smoking. And to an extent, she did.

Walking out to the steps of the door, she took a seat on the slightly wet ground. Taking out a red and gold box front her coat pocket and smacked the bottom of the carton with her hand. Taking one out and placing her mouth, she cursed under her breath when she couldn’t get her lighter to work. Finally getting it lit, she relaxed slightly. It was pretty windy, so she was surrounded by the sounds of trees and bushes shaking softly. It was nice, fresh air and the smell of the damp ground, until she heard a bush near the tree line a couple feet from her make a rougher shaking motion than the others.

_That’s when she saw it._

_Him_ to be exact, but at the time, he looked like a creature dragged from a slasher movie. Tight white skin stretched across his face, immense eyes focused solely on her, and above all the appalling smile that had been sliced into his face reaching from cheek to cheek. If she hadn’t been standing unprotected in front of the medical monstrosity, she would have been studying him fervently.

With a growl from the Frankenstein of a human, (Y/N) broke from her shock and stumbled up the steps. The man was bulky, but he moved fairly fast. Covering the few feet that separated them in mere seconds, he wrapped one arm around her and clasped a hand tight over her mouth. With no exertion on his part aside from a low grunt, he lifted the young woman just enough off the ground that her feet dangled an inch above. (Y/N) on the other hand struggled with all her might, even if she was suspended in air. She threw her weight from side to side and thrashed all her limbs in hope to land a hit on her attacker. In spite of her efforts, the man took her deeper into the tree line. Once the two were concealed from sight, he slammed her body flush face first onto the ground. He straddled her lower back and secured her with a rope around her arms and legs.

“Say one word, and it’s over for you. I ain’t in the mood to deal with it.” She thought the man was talking to her, but saw he was facing away from her. From behind a few trees, an average built man appeared. His face was concealed behind a thick black cloth mask with a frowny face in red stitched in.

“I’m not under your authority Jeff.” The newcomer’s voice was deep and commanding, leaving no room for debate. “Good job on securing the nurse. Knock her out and take her to Jack, he’ll take it from there.”

“Aye aye captain!” Her abductor, _Jeff_ , responded sarcastically. He turned around and flipped (Y/N) to her back. Pulling his arm far behind him, he delivered a solid punch to the side of her temple.

With that, (Y/N) began the terrors that her life would consist of. As it had turned out, the Creepypasta nurse had been busy taking care of proxies who managed to catch the Swine Flu, and a Creepypasta, Jane the Killer to be exact, had been injured heavily even for their species’ standards. (Y/N) was forced to help Eyeless Jack take care of her wounds. She had been promised death once her duty had been fulfilled, but fate would never be so kind. They made her serve their master Slender Man instead of releasing her, but instead of wallowing in her new rank she climbed up using her anger as fuel to trample all those below her.


	4. Chapter 4

I sighed with relief upon entering my cabin. Sure, the snow was gorgeous but the cold that came with it sucked. After peeling off my jacket and kicking off my shoes, I went to sit on the couch with Anya trailing behind me.

“So, why did you follow me home?” I asked.

“Would you believe me if I said I was worried about you after you saw a dead woman?”

“No, but I’d believe you if you said you followed me in because you didn’t want to walk home yet.”

“Well, it’s a good mix of both.” The dirty blonde chuckled. “I know I’ll have to go back before tonight, or my trainees will freak out.”

Trainees were one of the many ranks in the worker proxy level. Two to four trainees live with a Supervisor proxy, and if I remember correctly there are three living with Anya. Trainees are the lowest, and to put it bluntly, they’re nothing but pains. Mostly because dealing with trainees means dealing with how unused to they are to Slender Sickness. Slender sickness is something every proxy goes through, as it radiates off our master, but the more exposure a proxy has with the master the quicker their body gets used to it. Physical symptoms for it were messy, things like nausea and blood from both coughing and nosebleeds would become daily instances. Mental symptoms could be irritating as well, since paranoia and exhaustion would make them refuse to leave the corner of the room, or worse made them violent. I’m fairly lenient with them, I was the same if not worse when I was a trainee as well. However, even I had to put a few proxies to death. Some human’s minds are too fragile, that the transition from human to proxy permanently forced them into shock. Of course, it had to be with the master’s permission. Proxy deaths were nothing to take lightly, since only Slenderman himself could create more.

Right on cue, a young man rounded the corner. “Welcome back ma’am, who’s that?” a quiet voice asked me.

“This is Supervisor Anya, she’s in charge of the South-West area.” I informed one of my trainees, Warren. “Where’s Brooklyn?”

“She’s out back practicing her balance still like you asked.” Warren answered timidly, strands of his shaggy copper hair fell over his eyes as he dipped his head. He was new, three weeks about. He just recently had been getting the hang of Slender Sickness, but when he wasn’t occupied with that he followed on my heels.

“Great. Tell her to finish up and come to the living room.” I ordered. With a quiet ‘yes ma’am’ he sped away to do as he was told.

“God, he’s kind of like a kicked puppy. Do you make them always address you as ma’am?” Anya inquired.

“Usually, no. I wouldn’t make them, but it’s good practice for when they’ll come across superiors who give more of a damn than me about it. With Warren though, he’s probably just clingy because he’s new. He’ll either learn to be independent on his own or he’ll be forced to when he progresses.”

“Pfft, puppy-boy won’t last that long.” Anya said with a snarky smile.

“Dude, if he fails then it reflects on me. I’ll get pushed down the list of good supervisors.” I glared at her, falling back on the couch as she took a seat next to me.

“What? Don’t tell me you want to be an _executive_.” She whispered, almost offended.

“Hell no, but I want to go as high as I can go.”

“Good. I’ve been around for years as a proxy, and whenever I hear someone talking about becoming executive, it means they’re gonna try killing one of _them_ to make a spot available.”

I winced, “I don’t think I want you to tell me how that ends.”

“Just the way you think it does. They’re in way over their head and they underestimate them. Executives have just about the same amount of power a Creepypasta does. They fail, they get tortured to see if they’re an assassin, then they go on our list of bodies we need to expose of. I’ve only heard from rumors that it worked once.”

Chills ran free down my spine, but I was curious now. “Really? Who?”

Looking around cautiously, Anya leaned into my ear and whispered, “Kate the Chaser.”

“No way, she’s so badass. She definitely finished the climb up the ladder herself.”

Anya shrugged, “Maybe she did. All that I know is that she went up those steps pretty damn fast. And almost all her superiors while she was an employee proxy died within the month of her promoting.”

“We should stop talking about this with people around, if one of my employees blabs to them and what you’re saying is true…” I trailed of, the both of feeling a shiver just thinking about what could happen to us.

“You called ma’am?” A deep but feminine voice called from the back door, she walked quickly in front of Anya and me.

“Yeah, call it a night on practicing. Go make dinner, and if you need help ask Warren. Other than that, you’re both done for today.” I dismissed Brooklyn and turned to Anya, who looked confused. “What?”

“You go too easy on them, it’s only 7:00. I work mine to the bone with chores once they finish training.” She said with mischievous grin.

I chuckled, “Well I’m no slob, and I want them to be good proxies not maids.”

“Well, I better run home then. The woods are impossible to navigate at night.” Anya lifted off the couch, and with a wave she left.

After we had eaten dinner, we were spread out relaxing before bed. Brooklyn was curled up on the couch watching a documentary, I was sitting at the table studying a map and planning out mission routes, and Warren was reading a novel I lent him. It was my favorite time of day, the evening. Although we had access to lights, they had been turned off and replaced with candles with flickering flames. The warm smell of wax melting drifted through the air, and the fireplace was smoldering.

“Brooklyn go put out the fire. No use for it if there’s just smoke.” I called from my spot at the table, tracing with my finger on the map. Wordlessly she hopped up and went to work.

A loud ringing in the house ripped all our minds off our activities. Warren looked at me bewildered; he must have not known we even had a phone. Brooklyn just froze, keeping her eyes plastered on the fireplace. The phone was tampered with, where we couldn’t call from it. The only people who could call it were at the mansion. It had to be either the executives or the master, but both weren’t people you’d want a call from. I felt a cold sweat begin to form on my shoulder blades. Best case scenario, they meant to call a different house, worse case was… anything else. The phone was used only for emergencies, otherwise they would come in person.

Gathering my nerves, I got up and feigned indifference to the situation. Going down the hall, everything moved slowly, as if I was walking through a thick jelly. Inside my room, a bright red light shone on the corded black phone on my desk. I nearly stumbled trying to grab it before it stopped, making them have to call back was the last thing you’d want to do.

“Hello, Supervisor (Y/N) here.”

“Evenin’ supervisor, we’re gonna need that new kid you got.”


	5. Chapter 5

“Evenin’ supervisor, we’re gonna need that new kid you got.” An informal twitchy voice answered. 

I swallowed hard, “You want me to send him through the woods at night?” 

“Of course not, the twerp will get lost before he even makes it off the lawn. Plus, you need to make sure he gets here.” 

“I see, we’ll be there soon.” 

Upon hearing the dial tone, I dropped the phone onto the base. I sat in my office chair and just slouched to collect myself. I was scared, it was that simple. To an outsider, I must look like I’m overreacting, but that phone brought injury with every call. I’ve had to walk plenty of trainees up to the mansion, and it never got easier delivering them to what could be their death. I grew to fear the sound of a damn phone ringing, because I knew whatever was on the other side of the line was bad news. Executives never just called to ask how your day was, they called because you were involved in one of their investigations. It was like being called by the FBI or getting a swat team on your doorstep. That’s what that phone represented. 

I can’t just sit here feeling sorry for myself. That kid is gonna need me more than ever right now. I stood up and left my room. “Warren, we’re gonna go on a trip. Go to bed Brooklyn, we won’t be back before morning.” 

“Got it, you have any idea when you will be back?” Brooklyn furrowed her black eyebrows; her demeanor was dripping with concern. 

“Earliest we’ll be back is morning. If we’re not back by 9:00 get ready and start training without us.” I was purposely saying ‘we’ instead of ‘I’, even though I doubt that we’d both be returning home. “Warren, go wait on the porch, you need to adjust your eyes to the dark some.” He obeyed slightly and exited, shaking the entire way. 

“He knows he’s a goner.” Brooklyn winced. 

“I know, do me a favor and make his bed, we should have it ready for someone to replace it.” 

With that, I left with Warren. While I navigated through the pitch-black trails, he stayed right on my ankles to avoid getting lost. I noticed him become more erratic the closer we got to our destination. He sniffled constantly, and with some help from the handkerchief I gave him he cleaned his bloodied nose the best he could. We kept taking breaks so he could empty his stomach, and I could her him mumbling over and over under his breath. The poor thing was in shambles, I was amazed he could still stand straight once we reached the mansion. I landed a knock at the door, and it opened to reveal a disgruntled Jeff. 

“I’m here on Ticci Toby’s orders. Either help me carry him up or get out of my way.” I said coldly, I wasn’t normally like this, but I needed this to be over for both of our sakes. 

“That’s why I’m here idiot. They made me wait here for you slow pokes, I’ll take you to 'em.” Jeff brushed my coldness with chuckle, before fireman carrying him down the halls with me behind. 

Jeff stopped in front of a door and watched me expectantly. “What? This isn’t the interrogation room, isn’t it a floor down?” 

“You don’t think I know that?” Jeff sneered “They told me to take you here. Mask boy got some questions for ya.” 

“‘Mask boy’? They all wear masks.” 

“Masky you moron.” He groaned like a child. 

“Got it, and thanks for the help with him.” My tone softened, Jeff was probably the only Creepypasta I didn’t hate or outright avoid, even if he was the one to abduct me. He gave me a curt nod, and even with his mutilated smile I could see the somber look on his face. He turned his back and kept walking with Warren, and I could only hope for his safety as I opened the door. 

Sitting at the desk overfilling with papers sat Masky, an executive proxy. He looked up, his alabaster white mask with a blank expression painted on in black. This is why I couldn’t stand the top proxies; they were the only proxies that hid their faces, you could never get a good read on what they were feeling or thinking. I closed the door behind me and sat in the seat a to his side of the desk. 

“(Y/N), glad to see you could make it. Before we start off, I want you to be honest with me completely here. A proxy died in this investigation, we lost one of our own. You have to honor your position and protect your comrades' safety, protecting a killer is a betrayal to everyone.” Masky looked me in the eye, even if I couldn’t see his, I could feel them burning into my head. 

“I would never protect a murderer, that puts my life on the line as well.” I said sternly. 

“Then you have nothing to worry about. So, does Warren ever go on his own beyond the house?” 

“Sir, Warren is too scared to leave his room most days until about a week ago. He’s harmless.” 

“Yes or no. Plus, if he was truly harmless, he wouldn’t been made a proxy (Y/N).” Masky said sharply, making the temperature in the room drop a few degrees. 

“Alright then, no. Warren doesn’t leave the house unless under my direct supervision. Can I ask what’s this all about?” 

“Why should I tell you?” 

“Am I a suspect?” 

“No, it’s fairly clear that whoever did this wasn’t you. The witness’ description doesn’t match yours at all. Everything from build to height doesn’t match. However, you’re responsible for your trainees’ actions.” 

“Exactly, I’m responsible for them so I should know what happened. If that boy really did kill a proxy, then I should know what was risking my other trainee and my safety.” 

He let out a heavy sigh. “Fine, you make a good point.” He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms across his chest. “Roughly after sunset last night, one of Supervisor Ramses’ trainees was murdered by a slit throat. Another trainee witnessed it, but only managed to see the jacket of the attacker. It was blue gray with a large black circle on the back, sound familiar?” 

My stomach sunk. That was Warren’s jacket, I knew because I gave that to him as a gift for joining the team. I remembered so well because he started puppy loving on me. He never took it off besides to sleep ever since. He was even wearing it when I handed him in. I just was hoping they went easy on the kid. 

“Yeah… that is his jacket.” I replied as Masky handed me a printed-out piece of paper, showing me different pictures of the scene, including a sketch from the witness presumably and a real picture matching it. “Wait, the witness said he looked 5’6, he’s much taller than that.” 

“We know, there are some discrepancies, but he fits it better than anyone else.” Masky simply shrugged, something that irked me. His life was on the line, but this investigation was quite shallow. 

Then, realization whacked me in the back of the head with a brick. So much so, that I didn’t think about what I was saying before I blurted it out. 

“If anything, that’s Brooklyn height.” 

“…Who’s?” Masky said, his voice seemed deeper as if I had let something serious slip, which I did. 

“She’s my other trainee, didn’t you see her in my file about my trainee house?” He stayed silent, but he held hand out in a waving motion as if to encourage me to continue. “She’s 5’5, been under my training for roughly two years, she’s almost ready to promote though I believe.” 

“Two years huh, so would you say she’d be comfortable leaving your property?” 

“I mean, yeah. I keep a pretty loose reign on her since she’s nearly perfected all her training so far, she mostly helps Warren or explores the woods in her off-time.” 

“And when is ‘off time’?” He said, pressing me for more answers. 

“Anywhere from seven to eight in the evening.” 

“Pretty early, don’t you think?” I could almost hear him frowning in suspicion. 

“They keep on top of their tasks, so they finish fairly quickly.” 

“Wait a moment, seven to eight? That’s roughly the time the trainee was murdered. Where were you last night?” The air had a deadly silence to it, poison dripping from his words. 

“I was attending a supervisor meeting at Supervisor Casey’s home. All the supervisors were in attendance, and when I returned home both Brooklyn and Warren were fast asleep.” 

A loud smack landed itself on the table, making the papers beneath his hand fly to the side. “Just because they were asleep means nothing! Do you not understand the levity of this all?!” 

I tensed up to the point I was stiffly shaking in fear. “Yes sir, I understand.” It took me everything to not stutter. 

“Then act like it damn it!” 

A much softer but still assertive knock came from the door behind me, making me jump. An orange hooded man entered the room, Executive Hoodie. “Masky, we’ve received some solid evidence, the murderer isn’t Warren.” 


	6. Chapter 6

“Masky, we’ve received some solid evidence, the murderer isn’t Warren. It’s the other trainee, Brooklyn.” 

His words were gunshots to me, each bullet carrying a painful venom that pierced my heart. It couldn’t be her, it had to be literally anyone other than her. What was her motive? Masky alluded to Warren doing this pointed to him trying to climb the ranks, but if that didn’t make sense for him it made even less sense for Brooklyn. In the past, she fought to stay down as a trainee with me when given the option to progress to the next level, which allowed her to live in the nearby town. She would only explain that she didn’t feel ready yet, but it’s been at least a year since. She didn’t care about going up. 

“How do you know?” Masky asked curiously. 

“There’s footage, Ramses set up a few cameras himself around his cabin when he had problems with a trainee sneaking out at night in the past. It shows Brooklyn Davis wearing the coat that belonged to Warren Thomas. The coat had built in shoulder pads, which is why she looked to have the build of a man.” 

“(Y/N), where is Davis now?” 

“At home, she’s prepping Warren’s old bed for a new proxy…” 

“Why would you tell her to do that?” Hoodie asked me instead of Masky. 

“Getting called up here by you means someone’s going to die. Since they called up Warren, I thought it was for him to…” I trailed off, unable to finish the sentence. 

A raucous laugh broke out from the white masked man. “Oh, the irony!” 

Ignoring him, Hoodie pulled me out of the chair harshly by my upper arm. “Cut it out. And you,” He turned his mask to me, the stitched in frown looking more sinister than before, “go help that kid of yours. He’s a mess.” He led me out the door and slammed it behind. I spat curses under my breath, rubbing the surely bruised place on my arm. His words finally dawned on me. Ignoring Jeff that had been trying to get my attention, I bolted through the halls and up the stairs to the interrogation room, fearing nothing but the worse. Would I find him alive, beaten within an inch of his life? My mind showed me cruel images of the possible conditions he could be suffering. 

Reaching an iron door that stuck out from the rest, I looked back at Jeff who had been hot on my heels. “You gonna unlock it or what?” I seethed at him with gritted teeth. b 

He didn’t bother joking or mocking me, he must have been aware of the severity of the situation. He passed by me, and no sooner than the key twisted in the lock, I shoved it open and closed it behind me, hoping Jeff would get the hint to leave us alone. What I saw ripped into my heart like glass. Warren sat in the corner, with his knees pulled to his chest and his head buried into them. His arms had been thrown over his head to protect himself, and it looked like only a crowbar could pry them off. I walked to his trembling body, with ever step he’d let out whimpers louder than the last and visibly tensed tightly. I dropped to a knee in front of him, reaching out a hand to caress his hair, but the second my hand made contact he let out a pitiful scream of fear and flailed his arms out to fight off the new danger in front of him. I countered by grabbing both wrists tightly. 

“Warren, it’s me. Look at me, I need to see if you’re alright.” At the sound of my voice his head shot up to look at me, and within the second he shot forward to hug me. It was strange, I hadn’t remembered the last time I had been hugged with such desperation. The feeling of needing to protect him ran and spread to my head like wildfire, so I returned the gesture and pulled him tightly towards me. 

We sat like that for an eternity, I could feel his sobs and his shakes as he had one of the worst mental breakdowns I had witnessed. I sat through it with him though, for every second, reminding him I wasn’t leaving his side again while he was in danger. Roughly an hour and a half had passed before he had finally calmed down to the point I could take him somewhere else. Getting up with him practically wrapped around my side, which was awkward to him to be about an inch taller than me. Regardless we made it out of the godforsaken room. To my surprise, Jeff had waited there patiently, or so I hoped. 

“You two done in there?” He asked softly, no sign of malice in his tone. 

“Yeah. Thanks for everything, but I can ask one more thing?” I smiled weakly; my mentality took quite the hit from seeing Warren so freaked out. 

“Go ahead girly.” He sighed, running a hand through his black hair in mild frustration. 

“Can you take us to an open room? I don’t want the others messing with him but keeping him awake like this is worse.” 

He chuckled in response, “I can do you one better, doll. I have a pullout couch in my room, if he’s there no one would try to get into the room for him.” 

“I would appreciate that, but why would you.” I felt a wave of protectiveness wash over my head. 

“You give a damn about him obviously, he’s not just a little worker for you. I respect that.” It was weird to hear such nice words from his gruff voice, but you’d take what you could get. 

Jeff picked up Warren again, much to the younger man’s displeasure, and the three of us walked in silence to Jeff’s room. I remained on edge, even though I know Jeff wouldn’t try hurting him, my brain wouldn’t allow me to get out of my mama bear mode. When a short young teen boy popped his head around a corner, that same ‘mama bear’ in me let out a silent growl. 

“Hey you guys! Oh he isn’t lookin’ too hot.” BEN jokingly said. 

“Yeah, he just came from getting interrogated.” Jeff said in a flat tone, not seeming to be interested in talking, even though from what I saw the two seemed to be friends. 

Ben visibly winced, going to the point of even halfway closing one of his bleeding red and black eyes. “Jeez, those idiots asking me where I put the TV remote is scary as hell, I don’t even want to think about what goes on in that room. 

“You’re right, you don’t. Now let us get going so he can recover.” I responded sharply. 

“Whatever, see you around.” With that, the blonde boy slinked away. 

I silently thanked Jeff for helping fend him off, and we took Warren to his room. Jeff prepared the couch to make it as comfortable as he could and helped me get him into bed. I then noticed to more physical injuries Warren had. It didn’t look like they got the chance to use any tools besides punches. Even so, the young man was littered in red splotches that would definitely turn to deep and painful bruises within only a couple days. His lower lip had been split along with his eyebrow, and a black left eye was already gracing his once soft features. 

“You could drag him down to the doc’s office if you want, but those look like they can be treated with some first aid.” Jeff suggested from behind me as I was crouching beside Warren’s ‘bed’. 

“Doc, we have a doctor around here?” I asked confused. 

“EJ obviously, you got smacked upside the head too?” 

“No,” I began “but I don’t consider him a doctor. A doctor is supposed to help people the second they took the Hippocratic oath. All he does is desecrate corpses.” I said indignantly. 

Jeff simply shrugged, “Maybe, but he’s gotten us Creeps out of a few tough times.” 

I chose the let the subject drop for now, and left Warren’s side once I was sure he was asleep. Jeff stayed with him, but probably only did so because it was his room. I realized that I hadn’t been given any directions on what to do after helping Warren, so I returned to Masky’s office. 

If I thought what I had seen before was earth shaking, what I was about to deal with would be the planet falling apart in comparison. 


	7. Chapter 7

“(Y/N), glad to see you didn’t run off” Kate called out to me from her spot, leaning against the wall next to the door of Masky’s office. 

“Where exactly would I run?” I deadpanned. 

“You don’t need to know where to run to try, but you’re right. With someone in your position we’d have you sniffed out in no time.” Kate was obviously trying to be intimidating, and it worked. 

“What’s going on in there, I need to speak with Masky when he’s available.” 

“They got your girl Thomas, she’s in questioning. Why they don’t kill her on the spot is beyond me.” Kate pulled the end of her glove to her wrist, acting as uninterested as someone could. 

“My lord, who’s in there?” 

“All of them, except me. I’ll tell you what’s going to happen though. Either she confesses she did this all on her own and you weren’t involved, or she tries denying it and we have to keep the both of you locked up until the master decides who’s guilty. Either way,” she paused to clap me on the shoulder and lean into my ear, “Brooklyn isn’t going to see the light of day unless it’s in the afterlife.” 

I jerked my body back with force, grief and fear wracking my heart. “Please just let me talk to her before you kill her!” 

Kate scoffed, “Supervisor, pull yourself together. She’s not a good girl, she didn’t get here because she kept her nose clean. Why should I let you talk to her, she deserves no luxury like that.” 

“If not for her sake, then do it for me. I spent two years teaching that girl, you understand how badly that would mess with me!” 

“Then you shouldn’t get attached to some-” Kate was cut off by, a sudden familiar twitching voice. 

“Let her. She’s been cooperative thus far.” Ticci Toby, staring at me intently through his orange goggles. 

“Whatever you say,” she sighed “but this should be a lesson for you.” 

“Leave her alone, we’re needed inside.” Ticci Toby clapped his colleague on the back. “You can wait out here supervisor, you’ve done your job.” And with that the two disappeared into the room. 

With a frustrated sigh, I went to the spot Kate was and slumped my body against it, sliding to the floor. Resting my head on top of my arms on my knees I settled down. I knew I would be waiting there for quite a while, so I just gave in and tried at best to get some sleep. Thirty-minutes passed when I heard footsteps coming towards me from the hall, more likely than not a Creepypasta. With my face down, I looked through my legs to try seeing their feet as they stopped in front of me. To my surprise they were squatting down, trying to get eye-level with me. I immediately knew who it was from the beige khaki pants he wore. Picking up my head, I saw a scarred face with two radiant green eyes studying me. 

“Hello Liu, do you need something?” I grumbled, just getting back from the verge of sleep. 

“Not really, just wondering why on Earth you’re out here all curled up into a ball.” He said softly, with a light chuckle. 

“It was my proxy that murdered another proxy.” I said bluntly, resting my head on my hand. 

“Oh, I heard about that…” his eyes widened at the bombshell I dropped. He fell back so he’d be sitting all the way. “Why haven’t you just gone home? They’ll take care of it from here.” Liu tried reassuring me. 

“I don’t want to; I can’t abandon her. She was my longest proxy in trainee, and one of the best I’ve seen.” 

He sighed sorrowfully, as if he was sharing the same heavy heart as me. “It’s going to hurt like hell after this if you’re that close with her. I hope they let you at least talk to her before…well you know.” 

“Thanks Liu, I needed that.” 

A couple goodbyes later and Liu left me. Apparently, he had business in the town, so he had to go before morning. I couldn’t believe I had already been here for so long, it was already three in the morning. Another hour of waiting and I was bored out of my mind. Bored and anxious were two things that were horrible to experience, especially together. The room was soundproof, preventing me from trying to listen to into the conversation. Out of nowhere however, the door swung open with force, smacking my unsuspecting body leaving an ocean of pain to crash on top on my skin. Out sprang Ticci Toby, who paid no mind to me struggling to get up. 

“You got your wish (Y/N), you have five minutes for any last words. Use them wisely.” Hoodie said to me as the other three proxies left the room before following them. I walked lightly into the room and closed the door behind me. As I turned around, I saw her. Brooklyn was sobbing silently in her chair, I ran to her and engulfed her into a hug. Was this how teachers treated their students? Probably not, but in the moment I saw Brooklyn akin to my own child more than simply a student. 

I had received a rebellious nineteen year with no more help than “good luck”, and up until that point I had only experienced two previous trainees, this was at a time when only one trainee proxy would live with a supervisor. My first trainee was promoted but was killed while in commander status due to a small battle between the master and Zalgo. My second proxy had been too far in shock and had to be terminated as a result. It was the first time I had heard of trainees being killed for such a reason, and I took it as a failure on my part for not helping him. When I received Brooklyn, I focused all my attention on her progression, not daring to make mistakes. She was always a fighter, her shock period only lasted two nights before she tried to fight me, but we worked through it all. Then the decision to make more proxies and thus more trainees to divvy up amongst supervisors. Brooklyn acted like an assistant while I taught other trainees, and when she should have been moving on to higher levels, she chose to stay with me and learn as my protégé. 

But now, that once exuberant girl had been reduced to a sobbing mess with a disarray of emotions in my arms. And I knew then, I had yet again failed as a teacher. 


	8. Chapter 8

“Why? Why would you do this, did I not give you enough?” I said softly, keeping my voice at a whisper. I was scared of letting my true agony come out. Later, but not here and now.

“No! You gave me everything, and I did the worst thing a proxy could do, I betrayed our own comrades. I… I did this for you…” she whimpered out, pressing her face to my shoulder.

“Why would I want this? I have always taught you to work your hardest, not to cheat! Especially through blood.”

“I know, I know you don’t want this,” she pulled away so my eyes could meet her bloodshot own, “I did this so you could be proud of how quickly I got to the top, so I could become a supervisor and stay here with you!” She poured out more than tears, she poured out her heart to me. “You were the first, the first to care about me. I was just some idiot on the streets thinking that I was good enough to be some gang member, but I was too weak, and I was just some bug to them. You supported me from the start, you didn’t make fun of me when I fell or gave up on me when I gave up first. All I wanted was to make you proud.”

Sobs fell heavy from the teenager in my arms, as she clutched to me in a crushing grip. It was as if her hands had been wrapped around my heart, as I felt it being destroyed in my chest leaving nothing but anguish in its wake. Eventually as her tears lessened with my comforting, she tried speaking again. I almost wanted to hush her, to baby her the most I could to protect her. But I couldn’t. Her life wouldn’t last another hour, so I shouldn’t prevent her from saying her last words. She should have the freedom to utter any small thought that passed her mind, because once she said them, they would solidify the fact that she had existed. I shouldn’t get existential now though, I could do that later.

“I made sure there was no doubt in them about you. You had no plans of conspiracy against anyone under the master, you’re safe.” She smiled weakly at me, letting her remaining tears stream slowly down her face.

“My god, I’m not the one that needs protection right now. If anything, I should be protecting you-” I began, feeling guilty.

“No! I was the one who messed up, it’s the least I could do to make it up.”

“Brooklyn, you’re not someone who can be made up by anything. I don’t regret being your teacher.” I hugged her tight, our time was surely up soon, I need to do this while I can.

“Knowing that, I could’ve done anything.” She laughed without mirth.

As if on a cue of some kind, the door that had been opened a crack was opened completely. Kate sauntered in, it angered me. She walked in like she has nothing better to do, when she was, in reality, about to rip a small part of my meager “family” out of life. I absentmindedly strengthened my grip on Brooklyn, my body refusing to leave hers. She was the more mature of the both of us, giving my cheek a platonic kiss before standing up bravely.

“Not even putting up a fight? Fine, ruin my fun.” Kate grumbled.

That was all my head needed.

In the few seconds it took for Kate to have Brooklyn facing away from her to bound her arms behind her back, my body to surged towards my superior. I threw myself at her, knocking her away from my trainee and delivering a solid punch to the side of her head. Kate reacted quickly with a feral growl, before dodging my next punch by grabbing hold of my elbow and swinging me several feet away from the two of them. I returned to my feet, and as I tried to run towards the woman to resume the fight, a man grabbed me from behind to restrict me. I thrashed madly in his grip, refusing to let the fight end there. Looking back, I identified the man as Hoodie, with Ticci Toby joining his side to subdue me as well. Seeing that I couldn’t leave their grip, Kate stomped over to me and landed two harsh hits to my stomach.

“I’ll kill you if you put a hand on her, I swear I will!” I screamed angrily, hardly noticing spots of red flying from my lips onto the white mask of Kate.

“I’d shut my mouth if I were you.” Ticci Toby said lowly, tightening his grip on me to hurt me further.

Kate ignored my threats, harshly forcing Brooklyn against the wall to tie her wrists. Once they carried her out, and the two holding me knew I was of no threat of charging once more, they pushed me to the ground. Before I had time to get up, they left the room. I scrambled to my feet, grabbing the doorknob and twisting it irrationally. They had locked me in, I had no escape. I ceased all my actions, listening to anything and everything I could.

_Silence._

_Creaking of floorboards somewhere in the house._

_The ticking of the clock in the room._

**_BANG!_ **

Everything silenced. Even the nature outside seemed to shut up to try listening for the origin of the gunshot. Every movement in the house stilled. No whispers or footsteps. Any movement that could’ve been heard has stilled. Until my piercing scream tore it apart. I felt all my anguish come out in a flood of tears as I howled. I knew that surely, I had no breath in my lungs, but it was like my body had conjured more from other places than my lungs alone. It was an entirety until I had finally lost enough air to need to breathe. But I didn’t stop there, I sat there and sobbed. It was the first time I cried since I had been abducted, and the weight of everything crushed me. Unexpectedly black clouds began to fade over my vison, as a pounding static tore through my head; it was the master.

I put up a fight to prevent him from taking over my mind, which was what he was precisely trying to do. As I felt the rich red blood leak down my lips from my nose, I was finally too weak to keep fighting. I couldn’t stop though, even when my weakness reduced my screams to tearful whimpers, I didn’t go out silent. It felt like my body dropped on a cliff, and I was falling endlessly, even though I was fully aware I was probably just lying flat on the floor. Abruptly the sensation stopped, and my consciousness stopped with it.


	9. Chapter 9

I woke up in the execution room. _They_ must’ve put me here. I slowly sat up from my crumpled state on the floor, my bones groaned and cracked loudly as I did. Only one light was on, good. The less of this putrid room I had to look at the better. My heart stuttered as I saw Brooklyn’s lifeless body laying in the middle of the room on a stretcher, trying my best to ignore the sticky blood that pooled around her. Reading the note in my hand that consisted of chicken scratch writing, I was instructed to wheel the cart to Eyeless Jack. Angrily I clenched it in my fist and threw it on the ground, then grinded my foot on it. I took a moment to let a few silent tears slip out, gathering my emotions I took off my jacket and covered my pupil’s face. I refuse to be subjected to having to torture myself by seeing her empty face. My body felt as if I was an emotionless robot, an autopilot brain. A common side-effect of mind control. I almost missed Jack’s door, the trip seemed to last mere seconds.

I knocked softly; my arm seemed too weak to deliver a proper one. The door opened to reveal the monster who would rob pieces of my friend’s body.

“What happened here?” Jack questioned, I pushed the body to the middle of the room and sat in my usual chair alongside the wall.

“Don’t they tell you anything?” I spat. He replied with only a nod.

For a reason unknowable to me, it felt like a door deep within me was broken open, and the flood of feelings from behind it rushed out.

“She was better than she knew, she didn’t have to do it…” I took a shaky inhale of breath, “she was the first one that I felt like I actually taught, she made me feel like I finally was successful on helping someone through this hell.” My voice cracked painfully. I heard the crinkle of plastic and looking up I saw Jack covering Brooklyn’s face in a sheet to cover her and he tossed my jacket to me.

I caught the clothing easily, “what are you doing?”

Jack rested his hands on the rails on the stretcher, “A long time ago, when I first became what I am today, I knew a girl. Her name was Marie. I learned the lesson you’re learning the hard way too, I got too close with her that when it came time that she died I fell apart. She was human, and similar to me she was rejected by society. But unlike me, she didn’t allow the world’s harsh treatment to make her bitter. She was kind to me, even when she was aware of the monster I was. For the first time since I could remember, I had a friend. When the master found out, he punished me by taking her life. I’m assuming this girl, Brooklyn, is something similar?” Jack said softly, his words clung to my mind, I wasn’t expecting to be consoled.

“Yes, but she was a proxy too. I was training her, and she wanted to impress me. So, she was doing some,” I paused, looking for the words before chuckling mirthlessly, “some organized crime I guess if you could believe it. She was making some under the table deals, plagiarizing achievements. She slipped up and pulled a trigger, and they tracked it all back to her.”

“That won’t reflect well on you, how did you react.”

“How I’m reacting now is nothing compared to earlier. I was throwing a fit so badly the operator himself had to shut me up.”

“(Y/N), this will sound fairly crude, but could you remove her clothes for me?”

“Why?” I looked at him warily.

“I have access to a furnace, different from the one you use to dispose of corpses. You won’t be able to take her back home in one piece without suspicion, but I have an urn you can use for her ashes. I will prepare it, if you like?”

New tears bubbled up in the corners of my eyes, I was grateful beyond words, “I would love that, but why are you going through the trouble?”

He let out a strained sigh, “I wish there was someone to do the same for me when I lost Marie.” With that he left the room into an adjacent closet like door. Opening it, I caught a glimpse on the grey rock-bricks walls inside and the large metal machine.

I turned to Brooklyn and wrapped her face more securely in the plastic. I made quick work of removing her clothing and covered her in a nearby blanket to preserve her modesty. When I was finished I took her hand into mine, feeling the chill of her cold skin and the stiffness of her fingers. When Jack returned and handed me an empty urn. It was made with colorful blown glass that consisted of light turquoises, lavenders, navy blues, and dusty yellows.

“Can I really accept this, it’s gorgeous. Where did you find this?”

“Take it. It’s been here long before I was, and no one knew its origin. It’ll serve you better than it will my dusty shelves.” He chuckled lightly, a sound I’d never heard. It was boyish but managed to keep that low tone and far away sound that Jack’s normal voice had.

“Thank you, I mean it. I can take it from here.” I began pushing the cart and Jack aided me but left once we reached the threshold of the room. With a clap on the shoulder, he retreated to his stool at the counter.

Several hours passed, and through the small window in the room I could see the morning sun’s rays seep into the room. I had just finished packing the remains into the urn, and I left Jack’s office. I hadn’t seen him inside, so I went straight to Jeff’s room, hoping he wasn’t too upset for Warren being there for so long. I had the urn in a backpack with my jacket stuffed in to add cushion. The roughly five pounds on my back thankfully didn’t weigh me down, and I continued through the mansion with ease. Arriving outside Jeff’s white and slightly battered door, I knocked heavily in case he was sleeping.

“Hey girlie, how’d it go?” Jeff asked, opening the door wide enough for me to enter. I saw Warren struggling to turn the pullout back into couch form, at least he was awake.

“The less I say, the better.” I sighed, closing my eyes and running a hand through my messed up (H/C) hair.

“Got it, he slept like a log if that makes you feel any better. Lucky guess that you were on your way back, I woke him up a few minutes ago.” Jeff settled on his bed, falling onto his back staring up to the ceiling.

“Good, we got a long way to walk back to the cabin.” I said, my authoritative tone returning.

“Get on out of here then,” he paused, “C’mon kid, just leave it if you can’t do it!” He yelled at Warren, causing him to jump out of his skin.

Warren followed right on my heels, and in a way it boosted my feelings. I couldn’t stay mourning for Brooklyn for too long, I had to make sure Warren would stay on the right track. Throughout the walk, Warren repeatedly asked to carry my bag, to make sure I wasn’t carrying too much. Each time I refused, but my heart warmed at the sweet boy. When we reached the cabin, I paused before opening the door, simply resting my forehead on it, that’s when I realized lights on from the inside…


	10. Chapter 10

I reached for the knife I usually concealed on my hip, but of course I had forgotten it at home. I prepared myself to possibly fight, focusing my senses to try to see what was inside. Maybe they seized Brooklyn and left the lights on? Hopefully, I didn’t want to have to fight with my friend in a bag on my back. I took a breath and warned the boy behind me, as Warren was starting to get confused as to why I wouldn’t open the door.

“Warren, there might be someone inside, get ready to fight.”

“W-wait what?” I hushed him and threw the door open.

I was about to yell out when I saw two heads pop out from the corner at the end of the small hallway leading to the door. It was Anya, and another man.

“Casey, Anya. You scared the hell out of me.” I sighed, trudging it and kicking off my shoes, Warren doing the same anxiously behind me. I turned to reassure him, “Warren, you already met Supervisor Anya, this is Supervisor Casey of the North-East section.” I walked up to my close friend and gave Casey a tight hug.

Casey had become a proxy a week before I did, and we got along very quickly. We helped each other through the tests and tribulations, and when we finally had to part when becoming supervisors, we still made time to see each other, even though it was difficult. Casey was like me in his past, a rambunctious troublemaker. He had a thin lanky build, and his messy orange hair went in every direction. He smiled at me, his freckled covered cheeks rising enough to reach his dark chartreuse eyes. I pulled out of the hug to bury myself in Anya arms, her gray wool sweater tickling my face. She looked at me with her naturally narrowed eyes and pressed her thin lips together in a pitying smile. She patted my head softly after I pulled away from her too.

“Uhm, ma’am?” I turned to look at Warren, who still stood with his back to the door like he was getting ready to bolt out.

“They’re not going to bite, don’t worry.” I flashed him a smile to ease him, I almost laughed at his surprise to seeing such an unusual gesture.

“If it’s no trouble, can I go to bed?” he said, and I remember what I told Brooklyn before all this.

‘ _“He knows he’s a goner.” Brooklyn winced._

 _“I know, do me a favor and make his bed, we should have it ready for someone to replace it.”_ ’

“Of… of course. Give me a moment.” I choked out, everyone in the room noticed.

I took off my bag and Casey held it close to him, not letting it go to the ground. I left the hall we all stood in and went down another, stopping before a wooden door. I ran my fingers over a small ‘B’ carved into the wood near the doorknob. Picking up a box that was in the hall, I made my way inside. I walked to the corner of the room, hidden away behind a red curtain she set up for privacy. I reached up, the soft cloth flooding in between my fingers. My hand was shaking as I tried to take it down. I couldn’t do it. I dropped the box and turned away.

“Warren! You can get to bed now.” I called out, not letting my tears overcome me again. I was in denial, but it hadn’t even been a day, surely I was entitled to being excused.

I silently returned to the living room and slid on the couch seat next to Casey. “So, what’s in the bag?” Casey asked curiously. Anya was messing with the radio next to the tv, trying to tune it well, eventually filling the room with soft music.

“Her ashes…” I said softly, the pair of people looking at me shocked. Anya hurried and sat on the side of me, I picked up the bag and set it into my lap. My fingers found the zipper, and I pulled the coat out revealing her urn. I held it securely, if I dropped it I have no idea what I’d do.

“What do you plan on doing with them?” Anya asked, admiring the beautiful urn.

“What do you mean?” I was confused.

“Like, do you plan on spreading them throughout the woods or..?”

“The fireplace… she loved the fireplace. I’ll put it on the fireplace.” I stood up and set it down. I remembered something important, “She was pagan I believe; she had a book about certain candle colors for situations.”

“Yeah, I think you’re looking for a white candle. That would fit this.” Anya stated in a matter of fact manner, getting up to retrieve one from the hallway closet.

“How would you know about that, Anya?” Casey asked slightly indignant.

“Supervisor Ramses is pagan I believe, I went into his room to grab something once and that place was just,” paused to breathe out heavily to indicate how insane it was, “there were symbols and figurines everywhere, and there were so many candles I’m amazed his place isn’t up in flames.” She returned with the candle, lighting and setting it beside the urn and settled with Casey and I on the couch.

“Brook was nothing like that, she just read a bunch of books.” I smiled, “I guess I should be thankful.”

For a good hour, we all sat in silence just listening to the music. Casey had his arm slung around my shoulders and I could hear his breathing getting shallower as he fell asleep.

“I appreciate this all, but shouldn’t you two get back before your trainees get worried?”

“We got Ramses looking after them.” He grumbled sleepily; he was a very light sleeper.

“She’s right though, we can’t expect them to stay in day-care all day. Plus, they’ll get in the way of his trainees’ day.” Anya stood up, fixing her dirty-blonde hair.

The duo left, and I stayed sitting on the couch. Eventually I convinced myself to stand up, and begrudgingly walked over to a large whiteboard in the kitchen. Immediately that sharp pain of grieving sliced my heart, as I immediately recognized Brooklyn’s neat bubbly handwriting. It made sense, the board that was covered in the plans for the day was her idea when she first came.

‘ _Thursday, B: Aerobic practice, Strength Training (ew!)_ ’ I paused reading to smile at her displeasured comment.

‘ _W: Stealth training with B, Basic exercise’_

My arm felt water-logged as I erased the writing. I scribbled out the fact that practice for today was cancelled, and the only rules were to remain inside. I didn’t care whether my writing was legible or not, all I cared about In the moment was making my way to bed, to escape this hellish day and to find peace in a dreamland.


	11. Chapter 11

Light bled from the curtains in the young woman’s room, causing a red hue to adorn her face. She slept peacefully, unaware fully of any possible danger near her. And for the most part, she didn’t care. She didn’t notice the familiar clicking of her cabin’s front door lock, resulting only from a key. She couldn’t hear the three sets of feet descending the short halls, one with heavy boots and the others with worn down sneakers. Even the sound of knocking on her door couldn’t wake her.

“Stay here.” The woman with heavy footsteps commanded the other woman, who obeyed.

She opened the door only enough to fit her hard-shouldered body through, careful to not have her white hood snatched from her head. She scoffed seeing the supervisor asleep, it was already one in the afternoon. She stomped to the blinds, ripping them open. In came the flashbang of sunlight that was accompanied by the rattle of the rings the cloth hung from.

“Wake up you sloth!” She hollered at the startled-awake (Y/N).

Once (Y/N) was aware of what was happening, she glared icily at her superior, Kate the Chaser. “What could _you_ want?”

She tossed a manila folder, similar to the hundreds of other ones (Y/N) had seen in all of her years as proxy, onto her lap. It landed silently on the bed covers, a puff of air coming from beneath it.

“What’s this?” (Y/N) asked, picking it up and rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand.

“Kimberly Murphy, twenty years old. She’s right outside your door, along with nineteen-year-old Ryan Collins. They’re the replacement trainees.”

(Y/N) scrambled from bed, hiding behind a folding screen for privacy while she change, “Wasn’t mine only one lost?”

“Yes, but we’re still down one proxy, and it’s no fair to punish Supervisor Ramses for your screw-up of a proxy.” Kate seethed at her subordinate proxy. As a result, (Y/N) felt that familiar urge to lunge at the woman but refrained. Frankly, Kate could just turn around and lie about killing (Y/N) in self-defense, and due to her recent out lash, she would be believed, so (Y/N) breathed in and took the insult.

Kate went to the door with (Y/N) shuffling behind her and she pulled the hem of her gray sweatshirt past her naval, giving her outfit a once-over in the mirror as she tied her (H/C) hair into a ponytail. The two left the room, and (Y/N) immediately saw three people besides her and Kate in the hall. Warren stood close to her door, almost being hit when they opened it, and was seemingly glowering protectively at the two newcomers. The woman, no doubt Kimberly, with short choppy golden blonde hair and icy blue eyes leaned against the wall returning Warren’s accusing gaze. ‘ _Good, the shock isn’t too bad on her if she’s already picking fights._ ’ (Y/N) thought to herself, turning her attention to Ryan. Ryan was a good few inches taller than everyone in the hall, with a bit of a thick build to accompany it. In contrast with Kimberly however, he could hardly stand on his two feet. He held his head, his fingers intertwined with his black curly black hair in a quiff style. (Y/N) hardly held back her grimace, she knew he’d be a challenge, but was hopeful for how useful he’d be once he recovered.

“You want me to anesthetize them? I brought some just in case.” Kate pulled out a couple of syringes.

“What? Hell no, they’re not animals.” (Y/N) scoffed, “plus one of them can barely stand up straight.”

Kate shrugged in response, “whatever, they’re your problem now. I need to get going, I’ll let myself out.” With that, her superior turned on her heel and left.

Turning to her trainees, (Y/N) sighed. She had just woken up, yet she was already feeling a sense of exhaustion from the visit. There were only three beds in the trainee room, Warren’s, an open bed, and… Brooklyn’s old bed. A twinge of guilt rushed through (Y/N)’s chest, especially when she realized she’d have to clean out the bed that belonged to her student.

“Either of you eat yet?” (Y/N) asked, more directed to the young woman who was much more stable than her male counterpart.

“I don’t think so, everything is fuzzy.” Kimberly grumbled, finally taking her eyes off Warren.

“Yeah, that’ll happen.” the supervisor ran a calloused hand against her hairline, “Warren, fix them up something while I prepare their rooms. I’ll answer your questions when you both are done.”

With a sharp nod, Warren led the duo to the kitchen while (Y/N) grabbed a large plastic tote to fill Brooklyn’s old belongings. She’d go through them later. Entering the fossil gray colored room, she made her way to the corner. Tugging on the purple mesh curtain that hung from the L shaped shower rod revealed Brooklyn’s small piece of the room. First she unhooked the curtain, tossing it into the storage bin behind her. The three beds all had the same curtain privacy thing, two twin size mattresses pressed to the left with Brooklyn’s in the left corner and one a few feet away from the foot of that bed. The final bed was in the right corner, Warren’s, and at the foot of his bed was a large rustic wardrobe that all the trainee’s used. ‘ _That’s right, I should get those two some clothes as soon as I can._ ’ (Y/N) added to her to-do list, but for now she continued on her current task. She packed away all the decorative pillows and stripped the bed of the blankets and sheets. She unpinned and with care put away the several photos and posters, placed the homemade bookmark in the worn paperback copy of ‘Gone with the Wind’ to save her place, and lastly she gingerly held a teddy bear that occupied the room as long as she could remember. She found the oversized band tee it wore, but that couldn’t take the fact that she hated how its cold black button eyes stared into her icily off her mind. ‘ _I never asked her where she got this. It was one night after she came back from the town, she just had it. It never seemed like something to ask.’_ With a huff she tossed it with the rest and clasped the lid onto the bin and returned to her room, pushing it beneath her bed. It was for now a time capsule she’d rediscover another day.

Peeking into the kitchen and noticing how close the soon-to-be proxies had nearly finished their meal, (Y/N) rushed to make all the beds with the standard white cotton bed sets. She didn’t like to admit it, but she was finding trouble with hooking up the new light blue curtains on the curtain rod. The loops refused to unlock to slide the fabric through, and the fact she had to stand on her wobbly tippy toes made it no better. She felt a presence behind her and before she could turn around, she saw the tanned skin of an arm that belonged to Ryan reach up and hook the curtains for her.

“Thanks for the food, can we talk now?” Kimberly called from the doorway. Warren purposely squared his shoulders to bump her and he passed and walked to his bed and sat.

“Of course, pick a bed first while I steal a chair from somewhere.” (Y/N) responded, keeping an eye on the irritated Warren. She grabbed a folding chair and dropped down into it in the middle of the room. “You look like you’re feeling better.” She stated, looking at the sheepish Ryan who chose Brooklyn’s old bed.

“I feel better too, or I think I do. The food helped.” His voice was much deeper than the older woman expected and had a gravely undertone to it. He ducked his head down and let out a dry cough.

“So, what’s going on? What are we doing here?” Kimberly asked, sitting on the bed closest to the door on the left of the room.

“Well,” (Y/N) began, “you’ve been invited to our special little slice of hell!”


	12. Chapter 12

“Well,” I began, “you’ve been invited to our special little slice of hell!”, I waved my arms in an outward motion.

Everyone exchanged a glance with one another, confusion written on all their faces. I hated having to explain this to everyone newbie that came along. It got old quite quick, and not even because I had to repeat the same information over and over again. No, it got old because seven times out of ten, I had to fight someone. When beginners finally realized that this was their life now and that they had no way of escaping or going home, they got violent. I never liked hand to hand combat. I was always either the medic on the field, only on the exciting days, or the person who cleaned up corpses and closed cases. It had to be done, all I could do was square my shoulders and face it head on. I leaned forward and rested my elbows on my knees, holding my chin, and took a deep breath.

“To start us off, either of you know what a proxy is?”

It was Ryan who spoke up, “I, I think it means someone who carries out tasks regarding voting for shareholders in place of the shareholders themselves.”

I pointed towards him, “Right on the money, glad to see there’s some brain working with that brawn there.”

“I doubt what’s going on here,” Kimberly paused to gesture around the room, “doesn’t seem like it has anything to do with shareholding.”

“You’re right, that’s because it doesn’t. We do work for our boss, carry out tasks for him-” Kimberly cut me off.

“To hell with that! I’m not doing anything. Just wait until I call the cops and blow this whole thing.”

I shook my head, smirking at her. I was right, she was bound to be trouble. “You didn’t let me finish. We carry out those tasks and in return we keep our _lives_. You don’t have a choice. I mean, technically you do: You can either be uncooperative and not last the week,” I paused to add emphasis to my point, studying everyone in the room. “or you can do the damn job and it’ll be guaranteed you’ll see tomorrow.”

“Who are you working for? What does he want, money?” Ryan croaked out.

“Our boss, he has no need for money. Calling him a he in the first place is an assumption all in itself.” I held back a snicker. “For lack of a better term, he is a monster. He is by no means human. Tell me, how have you been feeling the past few months, Sickly?”

“My head constantly pounds,” Ryan said lowly. “Honestly ever since I got here it’s been easier to manage, but back home there would be times where I’d just pass out. It’s like burning hot static is inside my head.”

“I get that too sometimes, but coughing is the worst. Sometimes after a really bad fit, I can’t talk for days because my throat is raw, and I don’t want to start coughing again.” Kimberly crossed her arms, pressing her back to the wall.

“I dealt with the coughing too, it’d get to the point I was always nauseous.” Warren proved he was still listening, even though he was staring out the window between Ryan and him.

I nodded along with their answers and decided to share my own, if anything I could use this to get closer with them. “I wasn’t like the rest of you, I was just brought here one day without them investigating or stalking me. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that, you both have been on our radar for roughly five months. That’s usually how long we watch potential proxies before making our move. I was a nurse, and they had a medical emergency that needed more than one person with medical experience. Whereas the rest of you probably haven’t seen our master even three times yet,” I stopped and nodded to Warren who smiled back, “except for you of course, I immediately was exposed to him for about three months nonstop. Not trying to downplay the symptoms, but while you all arrived here, you might’ve thrown up a bit. Or some bloody coughs and noses, and you feel like your head weighs a hundred pounds. But since I was there so long, I…”

I stopped speaking as the memories bum-rushed my mind to the point I forgot where I was. It was hell, I found myself back in Jack’s old office, my arm and leg shackled to the cement ground. Nothing was in color in my memories, all monotone like the static that ripped through my senses whenever the master paid a visit. My body would writhe on the floor with convulsions from his presence alone. Any glance I dared to pay him sent me closer to the edge of my sanity, and I just wanted to finally be released. Even now, I can only remember a few minutes of my time there out of three months. Each minute was filled with agony. For a moment, I was lost to the memories. Until a warm hand was rested on my shoulder. Instinctively I jerked myself away from the touch, until I looked up and saw Warren by my side.

“Maybe it’s better if you don’t talk about that just yet.” He said quietly, I let him keep his hand on me.

I hastily wiped my cheeks of the tears that strayed down it before standing from my seat. “As I was saying, get with the program. I’m sorry it came to this, but this is your life now. You can either make do and prosper or you can perish. For now,” I turned so that only Warren could see my face, “can you keep an eye on them? I’m going to clear my head.”

“Of course, take all the time you need ma’am.”


	13. Chapter 13

The wind tickled me, leaving the nape of my neck covered in goosebumps before I had the sense to pull up the collar of my jacket. A sense of melancholy loomed over me as my boots stomped the once stiff snow that now had become slush. The evergreen trees around me swayed gently as the same wind that was bothering me danced through their branches. Tufts of dead tall grass peaked through the wet cover of gray as golden rays of the sunrise spilled into the woods. As I walked, I played with those rays of sunlight, watching the light while I twisted my fingers. If I concentrated hard enough, I could feel its silkiness. Everything this morning has a sense of smoothness to it, from the slush that had yet to be treaded on to the wind that whispered through nature. It all had a velvet feel to it, until it was interrupted by his voice.

Deep, gravelly, rough, and dual-toned. It stood out from everything else. It matched his appearance, all dark black amongst a white and gray background. It made his brilliant royal blue mask stand out. My eyes were immediately drawn to it as he successfully, whether he intended it or not, captured me in his abysmal sockets. I could hardly see his auburn hair from beneath his hood, but if it could have been visible, I’m sure it would only add to his breathtaking presence. But it also meant the end of my solitary morning.

“They forgot to give you these. I don’t know how, they’re pretty important to someone like you.” Jack held out several papers for me to grab. “I’m surprised you’re out here though, leaving them on their own so soon?” His words were like a statement, but his tone was questioning and gently pressing for more answers.

“Uhm, yeah. It’s just that it’s a bit too,” I waved my hands frantically to make my point, “exciting I guess. Plus, Warren’s there, he can manage them.”

Jack nodded knowingly, shoving his glove clad hands into his pockets. “He has a good head on those shoulders as long as he’s not being tortured by the others.” He shrugged. “How is he anyways?”

“He’s a little shaken up, should be back to normal soon.” I said, remembering his abnormally protective behavior this morning around the new trainees.

“Well if he ever needs some sleeping medication just come to my office. We’re always stocked up on things like that.”

“Thank you,” I smiled broadly, “I’m sure he’d appreciate the thought, but I don’t think he needs anything like that.” Jack only nodded in reply.

“Mind if I join you?”

“Don’t they need you up at the mansion?” I continued walking with him following by my side.

“Depends. The proxies are pretty quiet if they are up yet this early, and most of the Creepypastas sleep into the afternoon. Anyone who gets medicine from me on a usual basis know they can just come in and grab what they need.” I followed along as he explained.

“And you don’t worry about them messing with your stuff?”

He chuckled darkly, barely threatening the mere thought before turning and making ‘eye’ contact with me, “Do I look like someone who wouldn’t notice someone meddling with my things?”

Although the response put me on edge, I did my best to ignore it. “You got a point there. I kinda envy that.”

“You’re envious of what exactly?”

“The fact you can tell if someone moves your things.” I glanced in his direction.

“Hm, it’s just one of my senses that were heightened. I can smell where they went in the room, it can be quite useful at times.”

“I bet.”

We continued walking through the woods, a thin worn trail etched into the ground that no grass grew and became muddy under the melted snow. It was there before I moved into cabin, and it felt right to continue treading it after whoever walked it before me. It sprung a question in my mind.

“Do you remember which supervisor lived in my cabin before me?”

I saw his shoulders jerk upwards; it could’ve been easily missed if I wasn’t already trying to read him. “You’ve been there for years, actually I don’t believe there was a supervisor there prior to you.”

“Then who was there before me, like what rank?”

He breathed in deeply, like he was going through his mind to remember. “When you first came here, I remember there was talk of recreating those ranks. That house was probably just used to house proxies before you, regardless of rank.”

I chuckled, “It’s strange, I hardly remember moving through the ranks. All I remember is supervisors taking care of trainees, and after that they’re shipped to wherever in the state that need ‘em.”

“I can’t understand that, are they really that trustworthy at the end of the training period? Some are living by themselves in major cities, they have every opportunity to try escaping.” Jack said incredulously.

“You got a point, but it’s probably gotta do with the master’s influence or something.” I kicked a rock in the middle of the path while thinking of a better response, “also they probably realize by then that they can’t run from people like us.”

“Us?”

“Well, ‘people’ like you, monstrous murderers. Even proxies like me can track them down easily though.”

“I heard once that after a higher proxy mentors another proxy, they create a bond between them that makes it easier to track the other one.” Jack said, adjusting his hood as it had begun to fall back.

“Hm, can’t say for sure. Who told you that?”

“Puppeteer if I recall correctly.”

“Unless a proxy told you, I’d take that source with a grain of salt.”

“Are you aware he has two proxies of his own?”

I shook my head, “I don’t think so, but maybe I just forgot. I don’t normally have business with the other Creepypastas, so I don’t pay all that much attention.”

“Even so, you seem fairly close with Jeff. He told me your boy was holed up in his room the other day while you dealt with…” he trailed off, “ _your situation._ ” He was purposely trying to avoid saying anything to upset me, something I appreciated.

“I don’t think we’re all that close. Maybe he was just not in the mood to be an ass for once.” I say with a smirk.

“I don’t know if that’s entirely possible.” He responded with a chuckle.

That put an end to our conversation, and eventually the path came full circle to where Jack had first met me to give me the papers.

“Thanks for being a distraction for a while,” I waved with the hand holding the flimsy paper, “I should get back and deal with them before I get in trouble.”

“I won’t tell.”

Jack nodded at me and turned on his heel, walking away. I stood there and continued watching him until I couldn’t see his black cladded frame anymore. The woods around me had gradually woken up. I could hear more birds calling out and creatures skitter along the floor. The rays of light were much warmer and larger. I let myself bathe in the moment, deep breath in and deep breath out. Time to make today a good day.


	14. Chapter 14

The rush of adrenaline that shot through me as I splashed the cold water on my face was sobering. It silenced the emotions that had set my head ablaze, stress and grief had diluted my judgement. It had been a week since the two new recruits. They hadn’t been much trouble on their own, but it was always difficult to take on new proxies. It wasn’t as simple as making a lesson book, considering how each one had their strength and weaknesses. For example, Ryan was built like a tank. Strong and had high endurance, yet you could hear the man stumble through the forests a mile away. Kimberly on the other hand was calculative and quickly picked up tactics, but she didn’t last long in combat. Warren tried his best to aid me in teaching them, which I appreciated more than I could express. Even though his help made things easier on me, I was more grateful that he had creeped furthermore out of his shell. I had slowly begun to heal from Brooklyn’s untimely end, yet the box of belongings in my closet reminded me each morning of my mistakes. But I was no fool.

Things were going well, smoothly, calmly. Three things that never described this lifestyle. ‘It’s the calm before the storm’ my anxiety whispered into my ear. I couldn’t allow myself to be relaxed too much. I tugged the cream-colored hand towel off the silver ring that hung on the wall of the bathroom, patting my face dry. The last light of dusk came through the window above the bathtub, but the bathroom was still quite dark. I’d rather it be this way though, I hated to see myself any more than I needed to. Resting my hand on the cool white tiles of the counter, I sighed deeply. Maybe nothing was wrong, and I was simply overanalyzing it, which is entirely possible. No matter how much I tried to ignore my thoughts, they always drug my attention back to them. When I heard a knock on the door beside me, I was grateful that I could escape their words a bit longer.

“Yes?” I pulled the door open, seeing my golden boy on the other side.

“Dinner is ready, are you going to eat in your room again?

I shook my head, “I’ll be there in a second, thanks.”

Warren smiled at me before walking off to do as I told. I ran a hand to smooth down my hair before exiting the bathroom, it had been a while since I ate with the others as I was devoting my spare time thinking of ways to help the two trainees. Now that I had a solid lesson plan for the next few days for both, I could relax a bit. While passing through the living room I stopped and admired the three pink carnations laying on their side and bound together with a white string next to Brooklyn’s urn. It had to been made by Warren, which was something that made me smile. I weaved my way around the couches and took a seat at the table behind them, choosing the spot next to Kimberly.

“Evenin’ (Y/N),” the golden-haired woman greeted me, “haven’t seen you all day.”

“Yeah, that reminds me,” I started, turning to Warren who was in the kitchen plating the food. “Warren! Thanks for supervising their training.”

The shaggy haired man turned around and smiled brightly, “No problem Ma’am.”

It never made sense why he called me that, he only occasionally called me by name. I know it’s a respect thing, but I never could get why he did especially when Brooklyn never did it or the others who were my trainees. The two men walked back to the table, each carrying two plates each. Ryan sat across from Kimberly and Warren across from me, a gentle noise of someone kicking the table could be heard. We ate in silence with the exception of forks scraping the plates. It wasn’t even that comfortable of a silence. The meal was finished, and I volunteered to clean the dishes, which made Warren insist on helping.

“So, how was playing supervisor today?” I grinned, passing the young man a wet plate to dry.

He hummed in response, “A pain if I’m honest.” We both chuckled.

“Imagine doing it for the rest of your life. That’s how it goes, same thing with just new faces.”

“I think I’m gonna lose it before I become a supervisor. When you were teaching me about ranks, everything just seems so…” Warren trailed off, trying to find the word he was looking for.

“Boring as hell? Because I agree with you there.” I tried alleviating the conversation some more.

“I guess,” he shrugged. “I just hope there will be more action by the time I become one.”

I shook my head, “God you sound like Casey.” I finished the last dish, turned to my pupil, crossed my arms, and looked at him sternly. “Listen, action means trouble, and trouble means more chances of getting killed. The best position you could land is something like the informant position.”

“Informant? I don’t think you’ve told me about that one.”

“I haven’t? Strange, well good timing because we’ll be paying Aubrey Dalton and Watcher a visit in a few days. They’re informants. Basically, you live like a normal human with a proxy housemate or two and you just pass information between rank houses. They deal with everyone except us supervisors and rarely ever deal with going to the mansion.” I summarized for him.

“Wow, that actually seems like a pretty good deal. How do you apply for something like that?”

“It’s based on your background, it’s a ‘they come to you’ kind of deal. It’s pretty rare to get called to do that,” I paused to point a finger in his face playfully, “so if you ever get the chance, don’t you dare turn it down.”

“You got it boss!” he replied, giving me a half-assed salute.

I went to bed shortly after dinner. I was tired out from the day, even though I wasn’t even on the field or instructing. I was at my desk all day going through files to make sure all my recordings were in order since I had to get rid of some bodies recently. I made sure to have copies in case one of the Superiors came by, it would only be something they’d nag me about if I didn’t. Masky wasn’t that bad, he was just a tired guy who’d remind you but wouldn’t get fussy over what seemed like spilt milk to someone like him. Toby was a bit unhinged and unpredictable and I’ve never seen him come by for something like a check-up, he seemed to be always at the mansion. Worst case scenario would be getting Kate or Hoodie to come by, and sadly they were the ones to frequently do checks. Kate would just go on forever scolding you, while Hoodie is just downright terrifying by doing nothing. The man was practically emotionless and had “I could end you in the blink of an eye” vibe.

I decided to not think about that creepy guy, the thought of him sending shivers down my spine. I nestled further into my blankets, allowing their softness and warmth lull me to sleep.


	15. Chapter 15

I worked silently to the sound of raindrops pelting my bedroom window. I scribbled away at papers, occasionally pausing to take a sip from the warm mug on my desk. It was a day off for everyone besides me since it was so stormy out, even though I still had to work it was much more relaxing than the usual workday. I was writing reports currently on my trainees and putting together more schedules for them. It was nearing their second full week as trainees, and they were doing very well. All signs of sickness were hardly present, and it looked like they were accepting their new life. Good for them. Even Warren had been improving drastically over the short time. Brooklyn’s death was still a fresh wound, but it was healing quicker than expected. Maybe I’m just forcing myself to move on. In this life the world doesn’t stop for you, you keep moving and moving until you can’t anymore. And when that time finally comes, then they’ll put you out of your misery.

I shook my head, ridding myself of the suddenly dark thoughts trying to intrude. I finished writing the last progress report when I noticed my cup was empty, so I left my room to get some more. Passing the living room, I saw everyone there, all lounging about. To an outsider looking in, this place didn’t seem like the housing for murderers in training. Not at all. Kimberly was curled up in an armchair in an oversized shirt and shorts, her choppy blonde hair messily covering her sleeping face. Ryan was sitting cross legged on the sofa in a white undershirt tank top, his fleece pajama pants marked with multiple superhero logos were almost cute. Warren was occupying himself thumbing through a recipe book at the dining table behind the sofa like the little chef he was, wrapped up in a dark blue throw blanket. Looking at myself in a nearby mirror, my own outfit was no better. A pair of grey sweatpants with a large maroon sweater thrown over my black tank top. Yeah, we just all looked like college kids staying in a cabin in the woods.

I snuck up behind Warren, which wasn’t too hard considering he was sitting with his back to me in the first place. “You should really be more aware of your surroundings.” I whispered, tapping his shoulder. Immediately he dropped the cookbook and spun around to see me, his eyes the size of dinner plates. I chuckled, moving past him before he could respond and into the kitchen. Without even looking at her, I could tell the noise from Warren’s book hitting the table woke Kimberly up. So, she’s a light sleeper? I should make note of that, it wasn’t a bad trait in this line of work. I reached out to the kettle which held (favorite hot drink), pouring it into my mug. I leaned out of the doorway to the kitchen, calling out to the others. “Anyone want some (favorite hot drink)? I made more than I needed.”

I saw Kimberly raise her hand lazily from the armchair. “Me please.” she said, ending with a yawn. I pulled another cup from the cupboard.

Maybe it’s just part of being a proxy, maybe it’s because the trauma that came with the process. Whatever it is, it causes your senses to go on overdrive. You become more hyper aware the longer you’ve been around. So, when the door suddenly unlocked, no knocking or anything, I was the first to jump from my spot in the kitchen. Grabbing a knife from the block before I went, I positioned myself at the spot where the short hallway from the front door to the living room connected. In case there was an intruder, it gave my trainees a meat shield and time to get into action. I stood there; the seconds that passed felt like eternity. My knuckles turned pale from my grasp on the weapon, silently wishing I had literally anything besides a dull kitchen knife. When the person finally unlocked the door, it blasted open, hitting the wall behind it harshly.

Two men immediately rushed into the cabin, shielding their heads from the downpour outside.

“You two…” it was Masky and Toby, “what the hell is wrong with you barging in here like that? I was about to attack you!” I shouted angrily, no, furiously.

“Good thing ya didn’t, we woulda minced ya.” The goggled man said uninterestedly, as if he wasn’t seconds away from getting a knife thrown at him.

“Sorry about him, he didn’t want to knock because the rain. He took the keys before I could stop him.” Masky apologized sincerely, running a hand through his wet dark brown hair, slicking it back.

“And you two couldn’t just use the damn phone? Isn’t this the whole reason you had them in the first place.”

“Somethin’ got fucked up and they ain’t working. We gotta wait til it’s done raining to get the elf on it.”

I cursed the two of them in my head, more so Toby than Masky. At least the latter had basic enough manners to apologize. I turned around slightly but didn’t move from the exit of the hall. “One of you go get a couple of towels,” I commanded, but said more once I realized how harsh it sounded, “…please.” I saw Ryan hop up first, going in the direction of the bathroom where the towels were. After he left, Warren pulled Kim up by her arm and dragged her into the kitchen. By the time they got in there Ryan had rushed to return with the towels, handing them to me. He looked confused by the absence of the other two, so with a jerk of my head in the kitchen’s direction he quickly ducked in with them. It must’ve been really crowded in there by now.

“Here, use these.” I passed the towels to the two men in front of me, Toby snatching it quickly while Masky said a quiet thanks.

“Don’t get me wrong, we appreciate this, but those trainees don’t look like there were ready to train.” Masky asked while drying his hair and mask.

“It’s too muddy out there for two novices. They’d spend the whole day slipping on their asses.”

“Can’t blame ‘er there-,” Toby began, soon after he was cut off.

“They need to learn to get used to wet terrain.” The white-masked man responded sternly.

“And they will, but today would have been like teaching them at the hardest level.”

When the two were down drying off I took the towels and walked to the bathroom, casually depositing on the side of the sink to wash later. When I returned, Toby was sitting on the arm of the sofa, while Masky was waiting in the armchair.

“So why did you guys pay me a visit?”

“You were sent a note to visit an informant house recently, correct?” Masky stated, pulling a folded sheet of paper from his jacket pocket, and passing it to me.

“Yeah, I was planning to head over there in a few days.” I responded truthfully.

“Plan’s changed, you don’t have to just go over to the target’s location and get rid of evidence anymore,” Toby started, before raising his finger to his throat and making a slitting motion, “ya gotta take him out.”

“And sooner. After we leave we want you head out. We were informed that the target had more information than we thought, and he plans to go public with his findings. The sooner you silence him the better.” Masky explained as I read through the paper, which basically said everything that the two just explained to me. “Do you plan on taking anyone with you?”

“I was going to take Warren with me, only to meet the informants though.”

“Then we’ll take the other two and send them to another supervisor’s house.”

“I’ll go get them ready to head out then, give us a few minutes and we’ll be set.”

“Sounds good.” Masky said with a nod, which was nicer in comparison to the overdramatic sigh Toby let out.

With that I rushed off, my trainees quickly trailing behind me from the kitchen. We all met in the communal bedroom and I passed out a backpack to Kimberly, Ryan, and Warren, instructing them to fill it with what they would need for an overnight stay. I explained to them the situation, telling them what to expect once they arrive. Similarly, I explain to Warren the nuances and changes made to the plan. I briefly left the room to pick up a duffle bag from my room, already packed and ready to be used ahead of time. Within roughly ten minutes, we were all ready to go. The rain had let up a considerable amount, no longer being able to be heard through the windows of the cabin. I watched Masky and Toby leave with Kimberly and Ryan in tow, and I did a quick once-over the house and left behind them. Even though we left only minutes before the other, they had already disappeared in the dense woods surrounding us. They were heading deeper into the woods towards the north, so they were most-likely taking the those two up to Casey‘s cabin. I felt a bit relieved; they’d definitely would be safe there, my closest friend wouldn’t let anything happen to them surely.

Ready to go, Warren and I started our trek toward the edge of Slenderman’s territory, which was were the boundary lie that connected us to the human’s realm. Once we reached that and successfully crossed over, we’d travel through a few more miles of woods before reaching a city where two informants lived. Then, it would be time to put the mission into action.


	16. Chapter 16

The sun was high in the clear sky, but despite that it was still very chilly, reminding Warren and I of the early winter season. I clutched my jacket closely to my nearly shivering frame, crossing my arms across my chest to generate body heat. I watched Warren step out of the cab, handing the driver a wad of cash as payment. Walking side by side, Warren silently tried making sense of the paper in his hand that had the address of the informants’ apartment scribbled on. His head bobbed around as he studied street signs, trying to connect the dots between the locations.

“You don’t need that; just pay attention to the route we’re taking.” I chuckled, waving a hand over the piece of paper he was staring at so intensely, breaking his focus.

“You know the way?” he asked with a tilt of his head ever so slightly.

“Yeah, I’ve made the trip here quite a few times.” I explained, wrapping a stray hair that blew into my face around my ear. “Once you become more of a full-fledged proxy you will too.”

He only nodded in response, taking in his surroundings as we navigated our way through the bustling city. It must have been around noon, as all the nearby establishments selling food had been filled to the brim with people. I was just glad that Warren and I were able to blend in as easily as we did. Our outfits were simple, Warren sported a black hoodie with a zipped up beige jacket and a pair of dark blue jeans, ended by a slightly worn-down pair of black sneakers. On the other hand, I was wearing a thick olive tee-shirt with a dark brown coat thrown over, going lower was a pair of black skinny jeans and tan boots. Both in the urban setting and the large crowd, we didn’t stand out a bit. It was just one less thing to worry about, so I wasn’t complaining.

Soon we reached the apartment building the informants were at. It was nothing special, a common theme in this trade, just a tall and old looking brick building with cracks spread across and cloudy windows. We moved into the lobby, quickly spotting an elevator off to the side. We stepped inside, and we were brought to the floor of our destination. The elevator groaned as it moved, and the doors squeaked when they rolled open. It was to be expected though, especially in a structure as old as this one. As we made our way down the hall to the door of their unit, our shoes squeaked against the off-white linoleum tiles. Coming up to the right door, I reached out and rapped my knuckles against it. I stepped back hearing the shuffling from the other side of the door. I could feel a tingling sensation go through my spine, and I knew I was being peered at from the other side of the door through the small glass peephole. Quickly the door opened, revealing a familiar woman with short blonde hair and soft brown eyes. She moved away, holding the door open and ushering us in before locking the door.

“(Y/N), it’s been a while since you’ve shown up on my doorstep.” She smirked, turning her back on us to go through a nearby filing cabinet in search of something. “Who’s the newbie?”

“This is Warren, he’s one of my older trainees. I just got a couple of new ones.”

“Oh? I was expecting Brook to be with you like usual.” She responded, her statement phrased more like a question silently asking me to explain.

The mention of her name sent a soft shooting pain through my chest, but I had grown used to it. Shoving the unwanted feeling aside, I answered quickly to get it out of the way. I relayed the story to her.

“My god…” Her face paled a bit, but she gathered herself and apologized for my lost. “By the way,” she turned to Warren, “I’m Aubrey Dalton.” She reached out and gave him a firm handshake.

“Nice to meet you.” He nodded, I noticed his eyes darting around and trying his best to not make direct eye contact.

“And I’m Alex Bianchi, call me Watcher though.” Said a woman with short dark brown hair as she walked towards us. I wasn’t going to lie, I was a bit startled by how she was able to suddenly appear like that, as if she were hidden in the shadows. She looked at me, her hardened face soft for a moment that could be easily missed, “Sorry to hear about Brooklyn.” I nodded back with a small smile to thank her.

“These are the two informants I was telling you about.” I said softly to Warren who nodded in response. Dalton quickly raised her hand and gave a curt wave while Watcher shoved her hands deeper into her pockets.

“So, you two are here for the mission debriefing right?” Dalton asked, looking through a folder she had picked up.

“Yep, I’m supposed to head over there after I get it from you guys.”

“Only you?” Watcher asked, one of her eyebrows hitching up in confusion.

I nodded, “He isn’t cleared yet to be a part of missions.”

“I see, I assume he’s going to stay here while you’re out then?” She asked further.

“If it’s alright with you two?”

“it’s fine with us.” Dalton assured me with a smile and a quick nod.

“Let’s get started on the debriefing.” Watcher said, leading us over to the sitting area. She perched herself on the back of the sofa facing us with Dalton taking a seat on one of the cushions. Dalton set the file on the coffee table separating us and began to pull out papers and spreading them around. I pulled a few chairs from off to the side and in front of the small table on the side opposite of the informants. 

“Alright, the guy’s name is Matthew Harris, born in 1973 so a middle-aged man. He’s some woodland enthusiast who started seeing a few proxies and got too curious for his own good.” Dalton explained, pointing to a picture of a man. He definitely looked middle-aged, he had shaggy gray hair slicked back and made prominent by a receding hairline. He had a fair amount of scruff for a beard that was long overdue for a shave. His dark eye circles made his dark brown eyes stand out, but how pale his face was also helped that. I thought it was a tad strange for an outdoorsman to be that pale actually, but I pushed the observation aside and continued listening.

“He lives on the outskirts of the city, about a mile west of the main exit we use for the woods that has the portal. Just another reason he’s a threat, he’s too curious and too close.” Watcher added, glaring down observantly at the several documents. If looks could kill, those papers would be toast.

“Here’s a list of his medical records,” Dalton pointed to a stray paper, “he had a car accident roughly six months ago that resulted in a tibia-fibula fracture. He also has fairly week lungs as a result of being a heavy smoker.”

“A tibia-fibula fracture only six months ago? Those take at least three months to heal if you’re young and in good shape. How the hell was he getting around the woods enough to see us?” I asked, picking up the record and taking a closer look in case I missed something.

“That’s why we didn’t have to carry this out earlier. He hasn’t been able to go too far off the manicured trails because his leg. If he didn’t have that fractured leg, he would had gone in deeper sooner. According to his last check-up a week ago, it’s still a few weeks away from being healed. Make sure to use that to your advantage.” Watcher explained, picking up a map and marking a location on it with a pencil.

“He wants to publish what he’s seen, apparently he has a pretty decent following in some wilderness or environmental advocate community. He wants to warn others and see if they have further information regarding what he’s seen. He’s planning on releasing it sometime later this week, but we can’t take any chances that he might do it early.” Dalton said as she further explained.

“What should I do with the information? Do you guys want me to retrieve it or just get rid of it.”

“That ties into my next point. He lives in a small home, but most of the information is in his RV. You might just be able to drive off with all the info. If that’s the case, then take it towards the woods. We’ll meet you there regardless, and we can take care of the evidence and the vehicle. Also, here’s the location of his house.” Watcher finished off, handing me the map with a sticky note that held his exact address.

“Just like usual, it’s heavily advised to make things look like as much of an accident or a suicide as much as you can, but if things go sour then do what is necessary. The top priority is just to eliminate the target and get ahold of or get rid of any dirt of us. That about covers all of it, you should be good to go. Think you’re ready?” Dalton asked, glancing up at me while she gathered up the papers and set them back into the manilla folder.

“As ready as I’ll ever be.” I responded, standing up and pulling my arms behind my back to stretch. “I’d rather get this thing done sooner than later.”

“Do you have your weapons?” Watcher asked, stalking off to a closet with a heavy padlock securing it.

I slapped a hand on my outer thigh, my hand falling on the sheath of my knife that was strapped to me. “I got my blade, but I left my pipe wrench here from last time.”

“Thought so, give me a sec.” She nodded with a smirk, opening the closet to reveal a plethora of assorted weapons ranging from firearms to bats. Reaching in and digging through a bit, she pulled out a large red handled pipe wrench and threw it. I caught it and tightened my grip on it, swinging it around a little to get used to its heavy weight; oh, how I missed my old friend.

I inspected the tool closely, humming in satisfaction. “Thanks for fixing it up, can’t even tell where it broke.”

“That thing should hold up for now, just make sure that blade is ready at all times in case it breaks again though for some backup.” Dalton advised, leaning on the wall next to the front door.

We exchanged a few more polite words and I told them all goodbye before leaving the apartment and the complex. I stuck to the alleyways and back streets, the less people who saw a wrench-wielding woman with a knife on her leg, the better. After a few minutes of walking, I started reaching the end of the city, as buildings became more farther spread apart and the number of pedestrians dwindled. After about twenty minutes, I pulled out the folded-up map and referenced it a final time. Looking in front of me at the brick home, I knew I had arrived.


	17. Chapter 17

The house was hidden behind thick foliage, at least fifty feet of tall evergreen trees and bushes with only a thin winding dirt driveway leading back to the home made of dark red brick. I obviously didn’t just strut down the driveway and instead opted to walk towards it from the side. As I made it closer to the house, I quickly spotted a short beige camper trailer hitched to a short bed gray pick up truck. Thanks to the short days that winter brought, the sun was starting to set, and the orange and pink skies hung above me. I had surveyed the place for only an hour at that point so I could see everything clearly and make a proper plan. Then, I’d wait for night to launch my attack. The house itself was nothing special, a one-story building with only a few windows that led into several rooms. From what I saw, the house had less than five rooms. From looking through the windows, all I could see was a bathroom, a bedroom, a kitchen, and a small sitting room. There might have been an attic or basement, but I could explore further without worry once I took out the target. I didn’t dare go near the camper. The window on the side had light flooding out of it, and I could tell immediately that was where the man was hiding, and likely was the place hiding all the information.

Time to take this poor bastard out.

Night had finally fallen, cloaking my surroundings in a blanket of darkness. I carefully made my way to the door of the camper, which was blowing open in the slight breeze, making sure to watch my step and avoid stepping on any twigs that could have given away my position. I peeked inside, confusion covering my face as I saw a dark sheet hiding the rest of the interior, pinned up about a foot away from the door. I silently climbed inside, taking a step to the sheet. I could see the figure of someone sitting down in front of a bright screen, belonging to a TV or a computer no doubt. I reached my left hand out to the sheet, gently grasping a bit of it between my middle and ring finger. With my right hand, I pulled the pipe wrench from my waist. I gripped it harshly, my knuckles turning pale from my grip.

I took a deep breath, in and out. I prepared myself to pull back the sheet, my mind going silent and allowing me to give my utmost concentration. With a sharp movement I yanked the curtain to the side and raised my wrench high in the air. Before I could even bring it down all the way on the man, I noticed something. In the chair sat in front of a computer monitor was no man. It was a mannequin.

“Huh-”

**_THWACK!_ **

I felt a blunt object smash itself into the back of my head, sending me flying to the ground on my hands and knees. The pain followed shortly; an eruption of lava hot agony flooded my senses. It was all I could feel momentarily, until I felt a small stream of a thick hot liquid seep down my temple and to my chin, before dripping onto the floor. My eyes dilated as I focused on its dark red color. Time became strange, I knew that this was all happening within seconds but the world around me had slowed to a stop. Especially when I noticed dark clouds starting to plague the edges of my vision. I felt weightless, my arms buckled from beneath me and I fell straight on my face. I tried so hard to focus my sight on anything, but I simply couldn’t. I couldn’t stop my eyes from rolling back and plunging me into blackness filled with suffering. ‘ _This is it’_ , I thought. ‘ _The end of the line for me’_.

When I came to, words couldn’t begin to describe the disorientation I felt. Even through my closed eyelids, a bright white light shone directly at me like it was determined to burn a hole through my worn-down body. At first I resisted it, but when I woke up fully the world rushed back at me and I wasn’t able to bear it any longer. My thoughts felt like swimming through a murky swamp, slow and thick. I opened my eyes and leaned my head back, trying to focus my eyesight on the cement ceiling. It was still considerably hazy, but slightly better than when I was knocked out. Knocked out? That’s right, I was just knocked out! I quickly try to jump to my feet, but not one limb moved in response to the distress signals my brain was sending. I focused my fuzzy vision downwards; I was sitting down in a metal chair, my arms bound by cuffs to the armrests. I tightened my fists, trying to rip my arms away from my restraints. My legs were in no better condition, being in a similar predicament as my arms. I peeked down at my thigh, looking desperately for my knife. As I thought, gone.

My head was throbbing, if I moved it too quickly a sharp pain tore through my skull. A cough rumbled in my throat, my mouth opening a little only to have a mixture of spit and blood dribble out, the same mixture I was choking on. I felt the stickiness that dried blood left behind on the sides of my head, but the discomfort it gave me was small in comparison to the rest of my body. I looked around. I was in a brightly lit room; the walls and floor were made of cement and reflected the light due to how white they were. In front of me was a gray steel table and a normal wooden chair, behind it a steel door with one of those windows that could be slid open. It was like some prison door. I felt rage bubble in me as it stared at me mockingly, I could almost hear it whisper how easily I could escape if I weren’t bound to this damn chair.

Until it opened.

A man appeared dressed like a doctor, a long white buttoned up coat with dark brown slacks and a black tie. He walked in relaxed, a hand in his coat pockets as the heavy metal door shut with a slam behind him. Under his arm he carried a big brown plastic box and black device, an audio recorder I assumed. He set his items on the table and took a seat, running a hand through his dirty blonde hair.

“Ms. (L/N). You went missing all those years ago only to turn up like this? Tsk tsk, what would your family think if they knew?” He asked cockily, a deep chuckle falling from his thin lips. After his haughty comment, he pressed record on the device, briefly stating the date and rattling off a series of numbers.

“Who the hell are you, and where am I.” I growled, narrowing my eyes at him with disgust.

“I’m Dr. Sullivan, you’re currently being held for investigation in a government foundation. We want to know more about your employer.”

“I don’t work for anyone.” I said flatly.

“Cut the crap.” He began, opening the lid of the plastic box and slamming a short stack of pictures in front of me. To my horror, I immediately recognized the figures in the photos. Most were proxies, other were blurry shots of nothing that looked too humanoid to disregard, but the picture that stared back at me was a photo of my master. He stood tall and proud, so much so that his entire body wasn’t even in the shot. Only his feet and up to his bright red tie could be seen. “You seem to look like you know something about this one.” Said the doctor, picking up the picture of Slenderman and shoving it further into my face.

I schooled my expression, pulling the best poker face I could manage. “It looks creepy as hell, what is it?”

“I don’t think you understand, Ms. (L/N). We aren’t here to play games. This is your one and only opportunity to fess up the easy way.” He spoke with an icy tone, making his way next to me and standing there to intimidate me. Suddenly, his hand was dug deep into my (H/C) hair with a vice grip. Bolts of white-hot pain spread throughout me coming from the wound near his hand. He leaned down low, stopping next to my ear. “I promise you; you don’t want to see the hard way.”

I grunted before turning my head as little as I could towards him. “F*ck you.” I said, spitting at his pearly white coat.

He quickly released my hair, glancing down at the small splat of spit and blood on his midsection. He let out a disgusted scoff, before raising his hand and striking my face with the back of it. My neck hardly had enough strength to balance my head, so the powerful force of his hand made it fall to the side and stay down. I squeezed my eyes shut, gritting my teeth to endure the sharp sting the slap left on my cheek. My hair fell around my face, hiding my expression as my head hung down. I could see the shoes of the so-called doctor stomp towards the table and heard him angrily stuff everything back into the box before stomping off to the door.

“Get the interrogation team in here. She knows something for sure.”

I’d like to think that I was a fairly brave woman. But at that moment, I felt such intense fear course through me that having a heart attack was a _very real_ possibility.


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TW;Blood, Torture, Drug and needle injection

The woman sat as slouched as she could in the chair, not even having enough energy to sit up properly. If she had not been bound by her limbs and midsection, she’d fall face first into the cold ground around her that was soiled by her own blood, the same source of a macabre dripping sound.  
A heavy blow of a fist landed itself square in the middle of (Y/N)’s gut, so bad that if she hadn’t been strapped down the force would certainly have projected her several feet back. But no. She had to be tied down with no way of defending herself against the merciless man of some ‘information extraction’ team. In reaction, a wheeze pressed through her lips and she struggled to suck in air.

“You and I both know I can keep this up all night, right?” A medium heighted man with buzzcut blonde hair panted out, clenching and unclenching his bloody fist; except the blood wasn’t his own.

“Oh… really? I thought we’d… be stopping anytime now for some-” she interrupted herself with a round of coughs, specks of thick red blood shooting past her busted lips and falling onto her lap. “some f*cking high tea.” she wheezed out the final part of her half-hearted joke.

Her only response was an annoyed grunt let out from the man as he heavy handedly slapped her across the face, “you seem like you only have something to say when you think of something to piss me off.” He growled, however something as small as his tone wasn’t enough to shake (Y/N).  
Using the little of the strength she had left, she turned her face up to the man and winked her non swollen eye, which looked more like a blink, and flashed a lopsided and bloody smirk. “Is it working yet, honey?” she asked mockingly, her voice a few octaves higher to insult him further.

“Fine, have it your way-” he started, sending her a despising glare with earthy green and speckled brown eyes.  
“I don’t remember asking for your permission.” (Y/N) snapped back, that sweetened voice slipping away into a snarl.

He held her glare momentarily, then with a haughty huff he turned on his heel and made his way around the table, fingers lazily grazing the cold metal before finally stopping at a mat with an array of different tools and instruments that were once shiny but now coated in her sanguine fluid. His eyes scanned dangerously over each and every tool, but he had long since made up his mind. Reaching out his white latex and sullied gloved hand, he wrapped it around the dark red pipe wrench, the only thing in the room that was originally that color and not because of blood. He tossed it around in his hand, quickly accommodating to its weight. The sight of his grubby hands dragging the tool across the table which emitted a high pitch squeal sent an uncontainable shiver down (Y/N)’s spine. He immediately picked up on it, just as he had been trained to. And upon noticing the short-lived tremble, a smirk that rivaled (Y/N)’s own crossed his features. He walked slowly up to her restrained form, like a predator stalking its prey. He stopped, several inches in front of her. He could feel her breath barely begin to pick up the pace in anticipation of his next move. He was aware of the thick tension in the room, and he planned to use it to his advantage just to make her squirm even worse.  
“Got anything funny to say now?” he said softly, but the malice shone through brighter than day.

“If I wanted to say something funny, I’d talk about how much of a waste of space you are-”

Right as she finished the last word, the wrench was brought down brutally on her left wrist. (Y/N) could feel the bone beneath crack as a flood of lava hot agony shot up from her fingers all the way to her biceps. Mustering strength she didn’t even know she had left in her, she lurched forward in her chair and let out a scream so horrific it could put a banshee to shame. She couldn’t even maintain her pride as several bubbling tears escaped her screwed shut eyes.

“Not what I wanted to hear, how about we try that again?” the blonde in front of her continued his teasing. All he received in response was a resentful roar from the proxy woman.

Again. He lifted the pipe wrench once more, and when he brought it down once again (Y/N) could feel the complete snap of the bone, and what was once a fractured bone must have become totally broken and turned to slivers. The feeling of haunting numbness in the tips of her fingers that slowly spread up her hand only confirmed her horrors. Even though there was a small feeling of paralysis, the pain she felt became two-fold. She couldn’t control her screams, and they came from her body as a subconscious order from her brain and a biological command to help her distract from the pain. 

The man threw a glance over his shoulder at the second staff member in the room, a petite middle-aged woman with sandy brown hair with several strands of gray swept back into a tight bun. His eyes met her dark blue own, as they shared a mutual look of distress upon hearing the woman’s screams. But this was their job. (Y/N) was a danger to humanity, it had to happen. This was for the good of society.

As her screams died down to wailing and blubbering, to slow whimpers. (Y/N) saw the sweet dark dots start to penetrate the edges of her eyesight, and it was like a drop of cold water on a stranded man’s tongue in the desert. She yearned for the release that blacking out would give her, to be relinquished to a deep slumber in nothingness to escape the grim torment she had been subject to for the past hours. 

But she was allowed no such luxury as escape.

Through her flitting eyelashes, (Y/N) could spot the older woman stick a syringe into a small bottle, pulling on the plunger and filling the barrel with a milky colored liquid she had become all too familiar with recently: Epinephrine. The medical equivalent of liquid adrenaline. (Y/N) let out gentle no’s and the woman neared, pressing on the plunger flange until a small stream released from the needle; ensuring no air bubbles were inside and wouldn’t be injected into her bloodstream. (Y/N) tried to weakly kick her legs away from the needle-wielding personnel in front of her, but the leather straps kept her secured tightly. She leaned her head back and closed her eyes, not daring to look at the opposite woman while she pressed the needle deeply into her outside thigh. The newly added mark joined the rest of the track marks that decorated her thigh from being injected so many times in the last twenty-four hours in the same spot. Her veins were engorged and painfully visible as they sat among various bruises from the pressure.

“We should give her some time to let the Epinephrine set in, let’s step out and go over what we have so far.” The older one stated, gathering up the papers she had been writing on as she observed (Y/N) over the past several hours.

“Alright, yeah. Sounds like a good idea. I need to get a little cleaned up anyways.” muttered the blonde as he glanced over his bloodied white dress shirt and dark blue slacks. With a quick hand reaching up to straighten his tie, he followed his colleague out of the room.

“I’m amazed she’s still kicking after,” the woman paused and rolled up her sleeve to look at the dainty wristwatch she wore, “nearly six hours in.”

“And she hasn’t even coughed up anything useful.” Her coworker said with a scowl, taking a handkerchief front his pocket and wiping off a couple dots of red on his fist. “It feels like a waste of time.”

“We’ll get her to crack eventually, but I’ve been monitoring her mental state since we first brought her in. She’s gotten chattier as it’s began to decline, I think we should stop soon.”

He threw her a bewildered look, “Isn’t that a good thing? Maybe she’ll slip up and say something.”

“You would think so, but she’s reaching the end of her rope, I can tell. She’s just stalling at this point, grasping at loose ends. She’s obviously made a point that she’d rather choose…” her words got caught in her throat as she thought about the session she just witnessed. “that than just talking about the creature or anything in the woods that we’ve seen.”

“You’re the one overseeing this,” the man reached up and with his pointer finger and thumb he rubbed his eyes, “you’re the only one who gets to call it quits for now.”

“I think I will then,” she decided with a curt nod, “go in there and gather up your stuff. I’ll submit what we have and then we can leave her for the cleanup crew to deal with. As much as I don’t want that last dosage of Epinephrine go to waste, if we give her anything or do anything more we seriously run the risk of killing her.”

“Sounds like a plan doc.” He nodded and stuffed the dirtied handkerchief into his trouser pockets. With and turn of his heel, he led the way into the cold room with the other woman following right behind.

The female personnel spared the younger woman a glance, taking in the haggard appearance of her. She resumed sitting as slouched as she could while bound, however she was leaned down more to her right. At first this confused the doctor, but she realized that she had been doing that to favor her left wrist. She couldn’t hold back a grimace; from both a medical professional and a human aspect, she knew just how bad an injury like that was. It already had begun to bruise and swell incredibly, which didn’t stick out much on its own as it laid next to various other bruised spots of skin. What made it noticeable was how skin seemed to be poking up…as if something were pushing it out from the inside. Feeling her eyes water and her stomach churn, she turned her sight from her. Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything much better to look at around the room. Blood splattered cement walls, blinding spotlights, bloodied tools that her colleague was placing in a box. Even with how chilling it was to look at those things, it was leagues better than the battered woman.

“I’m done over here; we can head out now.”

“Ah, okay. Let’s go then.” she sputtered out, taken off guard as she had been zoning out. The two left and informed the armed guards in front of (Y/N)’s cell to request a cleanup and medical crew to take care of their mess.

(Y/N) tried her best to keep her mind off the searing pain surrounding her hand, but it was all for naught. It felt like a scalding burn, getting worse until you think you can’t handle it only to recede momentarily before going back to burning. (Y/N) could feel the effects of the drug they injected her with start to attack her nerves. She couldn’t tell if the subtle shaking in her right hand, as her left had looked deadly still, was because of the artificial adrenaline or because both the mental and physical trauma she had received. She tried moving her left hand again, but abruptly stopped with a croak leaving her throat as it only heightened her suffering. With how badly they had broken it, not even (Y/N) who was also a medical professional knew if it could be fixed.

Slenderman.

He was likely the only one capable of fixing something like this. (Y/N) had seen firsthand in the past how his influence, especially on proxies, had extreme regenerative qualities. Almost like something ripped straight from a Sci-fi novel, except this was all too real. She’d witness extremities missing only to regrow, limbs hanging only by threads made of tendons miraculously heal entirely and fully functional, even missing and gouged eyes seemed to reappear as if they were never plunged from the body in the first place. That last one quickly brought the thought of a certain eyeless surgeon to her mind. She smirked bittersweetly as she thought, “I wonder if he ever paid Boss a visit about getting those back somehow.” She would’ve considered a joke like that as bad taste if she were in normal circumstances, however these were obviously the opposite. She continued to think of him, anything to escape the suffering plaguing her body.

Her mind skimmed through theories and observations she had made during their brief and rare meetings, each leading her down a more complex rabbit hole than the last. Things like, ‘how good was his eyesight, if he even has any?’ and ‘is he one of the Creepypastas who remembers his past? What was he like before becoming one?’ She was almost dead to the world, her mind too focused on a particular acquaintance. However, the sudden noise of the guards announcing something loudly and unlocking the door ripped her from the lake that was her mind and onto the dry shore of reality.


	19. Chapter 19

Once the door had opened, many people quickly rushed into my cell. Probably close to a dozen. Most had been dressed in yellow rubber suits and were armed with buckets, mops, and various bottles filled to the brim with colored or clear liquid. They lined up along the wall, waiting for the other, smaller group. The smaller group consisted of one person near the door rambling off orders down the hall to another member while they rolled in a gurney. The rest of the group was two people, one was waiting behind me when with his hands hovering over my shoulders, ready to catch me if I were to suddenly bolt. Thankfully for him, that wasn’t on my agenda. The guards didn’t look too friendly with those guns, and I had no doubt that they were more than willing to fill me with lead if I ran out of the room. The other person was a girl, who looked even younger than me. She busied herself by making quick work of the leather straps holding me to the chair. She looked scared to be even near me, like I was some monster.  
I guess compared to her, I was.

When she finished and I was ‘freed’ from the restraints, I was pulled up by my under arms from the man behind me. He moved around the chair, intent on being behind me at all times I guess. He kept his hold on my upper arms, guiding me over to the gurney. I let him lie my back down, even going as fair as picking my legs up myself to fully lay down, but in the middle of doing that, the guy yelling stuff down the halls roughly pulled my legs up before I had the chance. As soon as I was laid flat down, I could feel a new set of restraints being strapped around my limbs. I let my head fall back onto the rolling bed, feeling the metal frame through the flimsy mattress. It was only a notch above the chair in comfortability, but I wasn’t complaining.

I watched the ceiling with indifference, my mind slowly detaching itself from my body as a result of what I had gone through in the past… how long had it been? How have I already lost track? Did it even matter now? That small fact was enough to make a small piece of my resolve to keep it together crack beneath the gravity of my current situation.

I was carted into a room similar to the one they took me out of, instead of a chair and table however there was a hospital bed with a heart rate monitor next to it. I didn’t fight back as they transferred me from the gurney into it, pulling the paper-thin sheet up to my waist before hooking me up to the machine. The beeps of my heart beats suddenly filled the room, breaking the almost serene silence. Not serene because it was peaceful, but because it felt like the quietness before a raging storm. The medical team, all dressed in gray scrubs, left the room after ensuring I was properly secured.

Despite the artificial adrenaline spreading throughout my veins, I crashed the second my body eased up enough to be considered anything close to comfortable. But even in my unconscious state, I couldn’t find real rest. I was in front of a dilapidated warehouse, empty pits where windows once stood, paint peeled in random splotches around the walls. Nothing was nearby the structure for as far as my eyes could see, just a stand-alone streetlight bathing the dusty barren ground in its orange fluorescent light. I looked down at myself, seeing that I wasn’t… me. I wore a band tee, but the letters of its name blurred together and made it impossible to read. On my legs were a pair of ripped to hell jeans, a pair of black heeled boots shined in the light. Looking further up my chest, I got a glance of the tips of my hair, dyed (F/C). Then it hit me. No wonder I forgot; I hadn’t been to this place in forever.

A warm feeling of excitement filled my chest as I made haste to the entrance of the building, memories of friends were beckoning me inside by singing to me like sirens sang to sailors. They had no faces, their features just like the band name. I was a teenager again. I raced across the first floor, my body memorizing the layout of this place like it was the back of my hand. I reached a flight of stairs, creaking in protest under my weight as I ascended them. I spotted the green glass bottles littering the second floor, like a bread crumb trail to my favorite spot. Only a few more twists and turns, and I had finally reached it. It was a kitchen break room, or at least it used to be before me and a few buddies found it one summer night. Just like I remembered it; different colors and symbols had been spray painted all over every wall and cupboard door. I could almost feel the glee I felt as a teen making those tags. Random posters hung on the walls, and pieces of paper had fluttered to the ground after the gum that we used to stick them up had lost its stick. I noticed the random homemade candles, half burnt and ready to be relit once more to release their homey scents. I was even almost tempted to pat down my pockets in search for a lighter to fulfill their wishes. But a white piece of paper stuck to a window caught my attention.

Why was that there? We never put stuff on the windows, especially not smack dab in the middle like that. That was the window that had the best vantage point of the only road in front of the warehouse, besides the roof of course. We always kept that clear to keep an eye for cops who wanted to bust us. I stepped closer, my boots kicking a beer bottle and causing it roll across the cracked tile floor. As I got close enough to see and read the details on the sheet of paper, my heart felt like it had been plunged into liquid nitrogen. A picture of myself stared back at me on a missing person flyer. The rest of the paper had a handful of facts about me, like my weight and height. I saw something move in my peripheral, and when I turn towards it I saw a mirror. I was no longer a teenager; I was in my old nurse uniform. My breath hitched in my throat and I turned back to the flyer, snatching it from the dirty window and shredding it in my hands. And then I saw them.

Broad tan jacket.

Glaring orange goggles.

Painted red frown.

White dirty hoodie.

But the pit of unease making its home in my stomach upon seeing them was nothing compared to the terror I felt upon seeing him behind them. He stood proudly behind his most devoted disciples, his abnormally long and thin arms tucked behind his back while ink black tendrils drifted languidly behind him in a non-existent breeze. Staring for a moment too long at his face sent sharp pangs through my head as I folded in two at the sound of angry static. Over the sound, I almost missed the sound of loud thumping footsteps running towards my location.

I fought my teary eyes open, disregarding the discomfort caused by the static of the master. I focused on the doorway near the steps, preparing to either run or fight the rapidly approaching person, but by the sound of the heavy feet, I prepared more for the former. I readied myself at the second doorway on the opposite side of the kitchen, not taking my eyes away for even a moment. Suddenly, a figured appeared in the doorway, it was the owner of the footsteps. He glowered at me with unblinking and red rimmed eyes, a furious rage burning behind them hotter than the fire that burned his body and leaving him the bleached, white-skinned monster he was now. The memory of first seeing Jeff flashed through my mind, at the hospital where he snatched me away from before dragging me to the hellhole I’d spend the rest of my existence protecting with my life. The second the memory ended, he lunged at me in the kitchen and spurred me into action. I flew on my feet, darting around the old hangout. Eventually, the booming sound of him hot on my heels disappeared, leaving me to sigh in relief as I ducked behind a crate.

After catching my breath, I crept out of my temporary hiding spot. Making my way to the first floor seemed like sure-fire way to run into the proxies and staying on this floor with Jeff was even less appealing. But why? Why did I have a sudden and exigent fear of people who were my allies, my superiors, and most importantly, my master? I pondered the thought while I found the staircase leading to the top floor, trying my best to climb the steps as quickly as I could. Reaching to top floor, I quickly looked over it. It didn’t have rooms like the previous two floors, but instead was filled with towering empty shelves. Another thing that made it unlike the lower levels was the lack of light. The only way I could even see a foot in front of me was thanks to the windows letting dim natural light softly stream inside. My friends and I never used this floor, we always got spooked by the winding aisles of empty shelves that stretched to the ceiling. Empty boxes still littered them, and we swore we saw figures moving in the dark when we peeked around them. That, and the occasional thumps we heard when we were on the floor beneath it, like something was stumbling around. Safe to say, we never even wanted to go up there.

But now, I didn’t have the luxury to tuck tail and make a run for the homey and probably not haunted second story because of an angry Jeff, and an angry Jeff meant a beat up me. So, even with the unnerving memories of all the ghost stories we made up about this place as kids circling my mind, I moved deeper into the storage floor. I had no real destination in mind, I knew that this was a dream so I assumed that I could wait it out long enough to wake up and end this without being ‘found’. I picked an aisle at random and just walked down it, once getting in a short distance I leaned my back onto the shelves, the steel behind me groaned in disagreement with the weight being pushed onto it but stayed still, nonetheless. I pondered over a thought I had several times previously, ‘why the hell am I even running in the first place?’, why was there suddenly fear of them engraved in me? One could chalk it up to the fact I was dreaming, but dreams only reflect your subconscious. Was I more scared of them than I thought?

I took in a shaky breath, desperate to ground myself from the unnecessary fear. This isn’t real, even if they do get to me I won’t die here, they won’t kill me. Feeling a bit more in touch with my, albeit false, reality, I swore I could hear something faint behind me. Like, right behind me. It was breath, softly hitting the back of a mask. I wanted to look behind me, I wanted to look so bad, but fear had me gluing my eyes in front of me. Then I felt it. It wasn’t anything physical, but it was a presence that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up straight. It felt like putting your face too close to an old TV screen, making your skin feel fuzzy until you pulled away. That fuzzy feeling encased the entirety of my back.

It felt like minutes passed, my poor head putting together that one of them found me. But which one? Jeff isn’t patient enough to just stand there, he’s too high strung once he’s in the mood for bloodshed. I doubted it was Kate, her breathing was always kind of pitchy, sounding like she was on the verge of a wheeze. It couldn’t be Toby; I’d hear those tics by now. And I doubt it was the master for a similar reason, even if you weren’t looking right at him, if he were that close to you, you’d definitely feel the splitting headache he brought. I knew exactly from experience. It had to be Masky or Hoodie, both weren’t ideal. Hell, none of them were. But those two specifically? They were the oldest of all the proxies who were still alive, Hoodie slightly more-so than Masky. The thing is, naturally, with more time, the more you learn how to kick someone’s ass seven ways to Sunday. Especially when you work that close to the master for so long.

Well, no better time to face the music than now. Whichever one it was, they were already behind me, even if I ran they would only need to shift forward slightly and I’d be in their clutches. I took a deep breath and held it, puffing out my chest to gain a semblance of bravery, before swinging around to face them on my heel, the floor beneath me squeaking as I turned. I expected to look up and see a white porcelain mask with black full lips and upturned eyebrows, or maybe a baggy black ski mask with a malevolent red painted frown. The last thing I was expecting was a royal blue mask with abysmal eye sockets to stare me down. In contrast to seeing the others, upon seeing Jack, a sense of security tingled at the edges of my nerves. It made no sense… why would I feel safe around him when I knew him only a speck of time in comparison to my other coworkers. I furrowed my brows, my posture still stiff and ready to bolt at any given second. Under normal circumstances, I would’ve noticed the short distance of only a foot between us and stepped away uncomfortably. But his eyeless gaze kept me pinned to the spot I was standing at. We kept our staring contest on, I was too stubborn to break away from was a losing battle. That was until he slowly reached his hand out. I nearly jumped at the movement, even though his actions weren’t sudden in the slightest. He held his hand out to me, black glove cladded palm upwards. At first I thought he was silently commanding me to give him something, and I stood like a statue while going over in my head what he could possibly want. I was so wrapped up in my thoughts that I didn’t even notice his hand reach out further until his scratchy cotton gloves grasped mine tightly. A gasp forced itself through my lips from shock, not even I could’ve stopped it. I could feel his icy skin through the material covering his hands, something that contributed to the shivers ghosting down my spine.

It was almost peaceful for a moment. Although his freakishly cold hand entrapped mine, it wasn’t an aggressive touch. He loosely held it, assuring me that if I wanted to I could tug my hand back without any grief. But a sliver of myself didn’t want that. I could hear his rhythmic breathing softly hit the back of his mask; the pale moonlight mixed with a hint of the yellow streetlight shining into the floor made his mask almost glow. It was strange how breathtaking he was in just a few moments. But that feeling didn’t linger.

An alarm blared, one I’d never heard before, especially not here. The moonlight was chased away by red lights, strobing angrily. One moment, Jack stood before me. Still watching, still grasping my hand. Then after a blink, I was staring at a white ceiling.


	20. Chapter 20

A sickly feeling of dread made its home in my gut, kind of like the feeling you got when you were sitting outside the principal’s office while he called your parents because you got caught breaking the rules. Except, the worst that would happen there was an angry lecture and your electronics taken for a while. I didn’t even want to try to think about the worst-case scenario as I scanned my eyes around the crude excuse for a medical room. It was barren other than the bed I sat on and a heart rate monitor and IV drip stand next to me. There was a red bulb along the trim of the ceiling, pulsing a red light as a deafening alarm screeched out. Other than the red light, it was pitch dark. That’s when I noticed something else.

My bindings were undone and looking down I saw that I was half dressed in a patients gown. I was wearing nothing but my underthings with the gown sort of draped over me, only a small edge tucked under my half-nude body. I put together two and two, they must’ve been in the process of changing my clothes when whatever happened to make the alarm go off. But to leave me untied? They must have, stupidly, put a lot of faith in the idea that I wouldn’t wake up. I leaned forward, my bruised abdomen throbbing and screaming at me internally in protest. I went to grab the rubber and metal clip enclosing my pointer finger on my right hand, but I was reminded dully of my shattered wrist as it flopped like a pitiful fish against my commands to move it. At least I wasn’t feeling that much pain from it, in fact my entire arm connected to that wrist felt numbed. They must have injected it with a painkiller, but maybe they hadn’t gotten to giving me more before they left. What was the point? It wasn’t like this was some hospital, they weren’t here to help me. I shot my wrist a glance, noting how they neglected to treat it other than wrapping it in a bandage. I scoffed sourly, that was obviously not going to help; it was just salt in the wound. I pulled the hand with the heart rate monitor connected to it and pulled off the clip with my teeth, spitting it out harshly. Did I need to spit it that hard out? No. Did it make me feel a sliver better? Yes.

Next I reached to my forearm, tugging off the medical tape that held the needle down against my skin. Thankfully, it was my left forearm they had connected the IV to, so I could easily pluck the needle out from my skin with my not destroyed wrist and functional hand. It took me a few tries, but eventually I slid off of the gurney. I almost felt self-conscious as I stood topless in the middle of the room with only underwear on, but with a slightly reddened face I pushed the thought aside. I just hoped they weren’t surveilling me with a camera or something creepy like that. I snatched the patient gown off the bed, putting it on. It was like putting a coat on backwards, and it was a little awkward to tie the strings at my back and hips on the back of the garment without the use of one of my hands, but I managed to make a messy knot. As long as it kept the thing from falling off, I wasn’t too concerned with how nice the knots were.

I looked around once more, looking for anything I could grab and take as a weapon, or if I were lucky, some more painkillers. That’s when I noticed another thing, the door to my room was wide open… If it wasn’t for the searing pain around my stomach and face from aggravated bruises being moved, I would’ve thought I was still stuck in that weird dream. There is absolutely no way that they were that stupid, I honestly refused to believe it. My jaw had even dropped a little in a gape.

Whatever, I’d laugh at their idiocy later while curled on my couch with Anya and Casey, maybe even Warren and the other two. I would be out of this irritating dress and cozied up in my pajamas, nursing a cup of (favorite hot beverage) as I kicked back and relaxed to heal from my injuries. But I had to escape first before any of that. I didn’t have a plan; I didn’t even have an idea for the layout of this hell. I would just have to say my prayers and sneak around the halls and hope to find an exit. I still hadn’t had a clue what set off this alarm, but it must’ve been urgent for them to drop everything like that. This was my chance; this could be my only shot out. Whatever was happening, I just hoped it kept up long enough for me to sneak out.

The first idea I was to pull something straight out of the movies, find a guard or some other personnel and do a good ol’ fashioned switch with our outfits, but my busted face and undoubtedly ratty hair would’ve stood out like a sore thumb even if I managed to snag an outfit. Guess I’d just have to take my chances and make a go at it.

I hung halfway out of the door, looking both ways down the seemingly empty hall. I slid out whilst the red light was in the middle of pulsing, cloaking me in darkness for a solid three seconds. Even in the dark, I saw the telltale glint of something metallic. I looked over; it was next to the door pushed into the wall. It was one of those small carts that carried a tray of medical instruments, most with the purpose of surgery. I really didn’t want to think about what they planned to do with me using them, but it only added fuel to the fire, motivating me further to ignore the mild agony my body was putting me through to escape. I searched through the contents of the tray, my eyes falling on a pair of suture scissors. The blade was short and stubby unlike normal scissors, the majority of the length belonging to the handles, but I knew firsthand how sharp those bad boys could be. They were designed with the intent of cutting flesh, they were the closest thing I could get at the moment to protect myself. I’d still have to rely on my stealth skills, but at least I didn’t have to try to barehandedly try to take someone down in my weakened state. Arming myself with the scissors clenched tightly in my right hand, I made my way down the hallway.

I heard footsteps, it sounded like a couple people were rounding the corner I was approaching. I quickly ducked into the dark room nearest to me, holding the door open a crack as I watched a doctor rushing down the hall with an armed guard hot on his heels, seemingly there as an escort. I waited until I couldn’t hear their footsteps anymore, but it was somewhat difficult with that damn siren still wailing. Yeah, we get it, shit’s hitting the fan. Can someone shut it up now? I snuck back out of the room, checking around the corner before rushing down it, my bare feet quietly padding against the cold linoleum. I hated how acutely aware I was of the breeze rushing up my back, these gowns weren’t made for running around in. Even though it was only a small section, the uncovered line of skin trailing from the back of my neck all the way down left me feeling exposed, like a blade would sail through the air and pierce me at any moment. I shook my head, my tangled hair going every which way. My life was on the line, this wasn’t time to get shy because my ass was kinda out.

After at least ten minutes, the alarm was finally shut off, but the red strobing light remained. I kept stumbling down hallway after hallway, but they were all so eerily similar I felt like I was just running around in circles. I kept an eye out for a map, but my luck had run thin. I wasn’t making any progress, and I was increasingly worried that I was getting only deeper into the maze instead of finding my way out. This place, or this floor at least, had to be underground. Unless they choose to make sure there wasn’t a single window to further confuse people like me looking to escape. I could’ve cleared it up if I just found an elevator or something, but that was too dangerous. An elevator is a hub of activity, even in this emergency state there would definitely be people streaming in and out of those things, which meant a likely chance of me being caught and hauled back to my ‘room’. And even if I hit it at a time where it was empty, I couldn’t ensure that whatever floor I ride to won’t be filled with even more people. Long story short, the elevator and even the stairs should be avoided.

I made another turn, fully expecting to see a duplicate of all the other corridors I’ve been passing through. A long white hallway with a gray floor and five doors on each side. However, I was met with a sight much different, something that filled me with a pang of hope, even if it was at other’s expense. Laid sprawled out on the floor was one guard face down, his large gun slid several feet away from him. He was large and bulky like most of the guards, whether that was because of his actual build or of the account of the thick bulletproof body amour they were covered shoulders to toes with. Next to him was a nurse with long brown hair laying on her back. Her eyes were open, filled with terror as she died. I trailed my eyes downwards slightly, hissing a breath of repulsion at the sight of her belly torn open and her pink fleshy insides on display. The smell of iron was so heavy in the air I could taste it, it danced on the back of my tongue, tickling my throat, and intriguing my tastebuds. I couldn’t see what exactly happened to the guard, but judging from how the nurse went out, there was a pretty good reason that alarm was crying after all.

I had no idea why the sight of the carnage entranced me so much, I wasn’t queasy around gore after being a proxy this long. But I wasn’t amongst the ones who took pleasure in other’s suffering. Deep in my head, I could almost hear a whisper telling me that I needed to leave or else I’d be joining them on the floor too, with my intestines splayed out and decorating the floor like Christmas garlands. But before I could make another move, a deep voiced shout sprang me from my trance.

I sharply spun around, ignoring the ache my stomach sent me. Behind me stood another guard, except this one was very much alive. His gun was absent, in fact a few pieces of his armor seemed to be missing too. The most noticeable being the helmet the other guards wore. His brown eyes met mine, and the hateful look he had in them was almost indescribable. He locked his sharp jaw, his lip curling back in a snarl to show me how he was grinding his bright white teeth. Guess when you’re the brawn of the government, you get good dental insurance. Must be nice.

“What the f*ck did you do?” he barked out lowly, his voice gravely.

“Oh this,” I broke my eyes from his hatred filled own to cast a glance at the corpses, “I don’t even know why I should waste my breath and tell you I didn’t do that.” I tried my best to keep my deadpan solid. I’ve taken guys his size before, but usually it was either in training or I wasn’t beat within an inch of my life prior.

“You little-” it was like hearing a dam start to crack, as his poorly concealed rage shone brightly through his voice and feeble attempt to keep himself in control.

“Finish that sentence and I’ll break your jaw.” I cut him off with a snarl to match his, I had a shitty night, I wasn’t looking forwards to being degraded by a meat head.

He bolted towards me, eager to land a left hook to the side of my skull. At the last second my brain caught up, shooting my arm up to deflect the blow. While I was distracted blocking his left fist, his right one shot out and got me good on my ribs. He pulled back his right, launching it again towards my face. I dodged it by shifting to the right, hearing it fly by my ear. I lifted up my right leg as high as I could, jamming it into his sternum and knocking him back a few steps. While he rushed to refill his lungs from the hit, I gripped my suture scissors and threw myself forward, aiming for the middle of his face. Like I had, he dodged last second, the blade catching his cheek and giving it a shallow inch wide slice. He kicked up his leg, catching me horizontally across my hips and projecting me back. It felt like a dull knife tearing into me. I nearly fell, but last second I corrected my stance. He lunged towards me again, but I held my forearm out and blocked his fist. In rebuttal I landed two punches on his temple, but he took them in stride, hardly flinching at the impact. Rearing my fist back and preparing to lodge the scissors into his skull, he took the split second that I was open and defenseless to his advantage. He punched me square in the nose, and I tried my best to ignore the sickly crack that emitted.

That blow was the final straw for my body, when I shot back on wobbly feet I tumbled back and landed on my rear, my grip lost on the scissors as I could only watch as they fell with a clatter and slid out of reach. I quickly placed my hands beside me, ready to stand up and get back into the fight, but a black leather boot landed on my chest and pinned me on the ground. I looked up at the guard, his cheek releasing a thin stream of blood that dripped down his jaw, following the curve to his chin. He pulled his foot off my chest, but before I had the chance to attempt to get back up, he brought his knee up high.

I saw it all in slow motion, the way his knee folded his leg as he brought it up, then slammed it down of the center of my shin. I saw my shin snap in half, something shins should definitely never ever do. Like my wrist, I watched at the upper half of my tibia became expose and tore through my skin. For a moment filled with sheer disbelief, I felt my stomach flip and bile rush up my throat. I took a shaky breath in. Then the slow motion ceased, life resumed to its quick pace and all once I felt the full force of one of the densest bones of my skeleton being broken into two. My ears rang, my body refusing to let me hear the scream I let out in response to the excruciating pain I was in. If I thought my wrist being reduced to bone slivers and limp meat was bad, then this was the worst pain known to mankind.

I felt that my face was wet, with tears or blood I didn’t know. Most likely both. As I tilted my head back, I felt the mixture drip into my eyes. I screwed them shut, surprised that they hadn’t been closed completely already. My throat felt raw, I had no way of knowing how loud my cries where. I was dead, I was done for. There’s no way I could fight back, no way that the entire base didn’t hear my screeching and knew my location. When I felt the inky black hands of sleep take hold of my body, pulling me to the safety of my mind like it had done several times recently, I didn’t fight it.


	21. Chapter 21

At first when Masky heard a blood curdling scream and the telltale sound of a body drenched in blood slap the ground, he didn’t even give it a second thought. Without even casting a glance behind him in the direction of the cry, he assumed one his comrades caught another nurse near him. He slowed his walk, waiting for them to get closer so he could bark at them to get away and look in another place; what’s the point of splitting up if they were just gonna be behind him? However, even as he walked leisurely away, you can do that when you’re an undead five-foot-ten murderer working for an ancient monster, a slow static began to purr in the back of his head. Even when at first it was fuzzy and warm, it threw Masky on edge immediately. He tried picking up his pace, trying to get away from the area his master was steering him away from, but he wasn’t going in the right direction. A mistake on his part that brought forth more painful static, shooting through his brain with a cold bite like a strike of lightning. Every direction he stumbled, none of them made the buzz subside. Eventually through process of elimination, he tried going backwards. Maybe he somehow missed something as he combed the previous rooms. To him momentary relief, the static backed off. So further back he walked. It wasn’t until he made it to the end of the hall that he finally put two and two together and made his way to where he heard the screams of a woman, which had subsided by now. He was encouraged by the lack of his master ‘communication’, using the gentle buzz which would increase into something more every time he took a wrong turn to guide him.

Was he really playing ‘hot and cold’ with his master to find his kidnapped co-worker? Yes. He’d much rather have his hand held and led to her location than trying to comb this stupid base for another hour. The first place his colleague, Hoodie, checked was her room after he beat the information from some poor son a b*tch doctor who was horrible at hiding, peeking from behind a door. He had reported that upon checking her room, he found the empty and bloody hospital bed she was in, with an IV still leaking. Obviously, she had escaped, something that miffed all the superior proxies apart of the mission, while the ones on her level, the supervisor, were obviously relieved to see that she was okay enough to get the hell out of dodge when she saw the opportunity.

Their rather large search party consisted of Hoodie, Masky, Kate, and Toby, along with Anya, Casey, and Ramses. Usually, a retrieval party wouldn’t have seven members, but also it usually wouldn’t have the superior proxies running the show either. Even in so-called ‘top secret’ federal bases like this. However, the most likely reason that they were all there was to slaughter as many personnel as they could while searching, a proposal that sent a certain ticking proxy into a fit of bloodlust filled joy. The running theory about why they were given such permission was because Slenderman was getting back at them, enraged that puny humans had the gall to take what he saw as his and break it. It was almost sweet how the master was so possessive over them all, until you remember that proxies benefitted him and that he was a selfish creature who only looked for self-gain.

Masky silenced his loud footsteps against the linoleum as he smelled the scent of iron start to get stronger. He was willing to bet that at least someone had to be drawn to the woman’s cries, if otherwise then the bastards of this joint were a lot more fucked up than he thought. Regardless, he’d air on the side of caution and keep his advantage of having the element of surprise.

What he saw when he looked around the corner was a sight that easily rattled the man.

To be fair, a sight like that would rattle anyone, it would shake you even worse to your core when you knew them, even if it was only in passing like Masky had with (Y/N). The (h/c) haired woman was sprawled out on her back on the gray floor, blood pouring from her awkwardly bent nose and cascading into her tangled rat’s nest. He was slightly relieved to see the steady rise and fall of her chest, but some of her breaths were stuttering as small bouts of harsh trembling came and went with her body. He noticed her wrist, but only saw that it was wrapped up he way that you treated a minor sprain, unaware of the brutal reality. He continued studying her injured frame from his place at the end of the hall, seeing her right leg and shin snapped in two with the bone exposed and protruding from her bloodied flesh. Masky felt a rage seep into him like the blood puddle that grew enough to reach (Y/N)’s thigh and soaked into the hem of her patient gown, staining both underside of her legs in the crimson liquid. In front of her was one of the all too familiar guards, Masky had taken down quite a few tonight already to the point he learned a hand full of weak spots on the armor, even though this one was underdressed in comparison. The knowledge however would make what he was about to do even more exhilarating.

He stalked silently to the crouching guard, who made no attempt to wipe the sick smug look from his face as he looked over the product of his work with a predatory gaze, something that only further rubbed the white masked man the wrong way even more. With a furrow of his brows and eyes widening, lips raising in a hellish snarl, Masky raised his favorite crowbar into the air. He pulled it back, twisting his body expertly as he got in the proper position to swing, as if this were all second nature to him. In a way, it was. The slightly corroded crowbar gleamed gently in the red flashing lights, before swiftly being swung into the unsuspecting guard. The tool’s teeth dug into the exposed flesh of the side of his neck, quickly finding an artery, and severing it with ease before ripping back out. Masky marveled in the familiar sight of blood spurting and flowing like a macabre fountain or waterfall, slipping his weapon into a notch on the back of his jacket to hold it. He rested his foot on the quickly bleeding out man, effortlessly kicking him to the side and away from his fallen colleague.

“Damn (Y/N),” he wheezed out, still in a bit of shock in her busted state, further taking in the slightly older bruises that adorned her face, “they really got you good this time, huh?”

He berated himself for shaking slightly as he tugged a walkie talkie from his belt, raising it to his chin and popping his finger over the red button.

“This is Masky, does anyone copy? Over.”

He waited several second before hearing a voice laced with static come from the device, “We hear you, go ahead.” Kate assured him, giving him the green light to continue.

“Hope you’re all listening, I just found (L/N). She’s,” his voice got caught in his throat, but he covered it with a cough, “I won’t lie, she’s in real bad shape. We’re in the east wing, heading towards that emergency exit I entered from now. Over.”

“Copy that. How bad is she?” Asked Hoodie, his already muffled voice from his ski mask making him a bit harder than usual to understand.

“Unconscious, thankfully. They really went off on her, I think I got the son of a b*tch who did it. From what I can see, the worst is her leg. The bone in the lower half is broken, it’s stickin’ out.” Masky finished, as he waited for a response he kept looking down both directions of the hall.

“click…” The radio made a sound like someone picked up, but soon turned off after a few seconds of silence.

“Didn’t catch that, say again?” Hoodie asked, a hint of annoyance in his tone. How could you blame him though? He didn’t want to be here any longer than anyone else.

“Sorry, that was me. Lost my train of thought for a sec.” With a sign, Kate continued. “You said you’re heading out through the east emergency exit, right?”

“Affirmative.” Masky responded.

“Aight, head out that way now. Same for everyone else, let’s all meet up at the spot. Over and out.” Hearing Kate sign off, Masky reattached the walkie-talkie to his belt.

He slipped his arms beneath (Y/N), her blood immediately absorbing into the thick tan material of his heavily worn jacket. It didn’t bother him much though, when you’re a proxy, you learn to tackle blood stains like second nature. With ease, he hoisted her up in his arms, holding her limp figure in a secure bridal carry. He made sure her head was supported the best he could, but it was fairly obvious that the man wasn’t too used to being gentle while carrying someone around. Once he was sure the coast was clear, he set off into the direction of the emergency doors. Unlike (Y/N), the members of the search party were all maps of the base’s layout. The way they built the place was obviously an attempt to confuse and get outsiders turned around, and even though he wouldn’t admit it, even Masky himself had gotten himself lost a few times throughout the past couple of hours.

To his dismay, once they were only a few more minutes away from the doors, the red lights stopped strobing momentarily before turning off altogether, flooding the corridors in darkness. He brushed it off, eyes on the prize and unwilling to let a little lack of light deter him. That was the case until he realized there was absolutely no windows or other sources of lights, they were in an underground level after all. With a huff, he ducked into a small indent where a doorway was along the walls, waiting for his eyes to try adjusting. He let out an irritated hiss when the lights suddenly flicked on, replacing the pitch black with blinding white. He let out a muffled string of curses, both at the stinging of his eyes and at the fact that the idiots must’ve found where they cut the power and restored it or finally got the common sense to use the backup generator.

Whatever, this was only a small difference from the plan. They were only another minute or so from the exit, even if they deployed more guards they would reach them in time. He did however chance his pace from a fast speed-walk to jogging, making sure his grip on (Y/N) didn’t falter. he rounded a corner, seeing a cement staircase leading up to a pair of steel double doors. Bingo. He quickly made his way up the stair, taking them two steps at a time.

“Freeze!” A voice yelled at him from behind, pfft, as if he were actually gonna listen to that.

In contrast to the command, the round of gunshots that fired bullets into the door mere inches to the right of him did catch his attention. He had no clue how they missed when he was less than ten feet away, but he didn’t plan on testing his luck a second time. He shifted (Y/N) in his arms, mentally apologizing for the way he threw her like a sack of potatoes over his shoulders to free up his hands. With a rough pulled he yanked open the door with bullets buried into it, only enough to fit himself through. Once outside, he didn’t take even a second to appreciate the brisk winter night breeze blowing through his dark brown hair, instead opting to pull his crowbar out from its spot on his back and shoved it through the handles of the door. There, that outta hold ‘em, he thought to himself with a cocky smirk. He didn’t wait around for the guard to call back up and give away his position, and made a mad dash across the lawn towards the twelve foot tall chain link fence, the top adorned with razor wire just begging him to even think about climbing it, so they could sink their barbed teeth into his skin. He wouldn’t dare though, even if he weren’t carrying a grown woman on his shoulder, he wouldn’t have tried to climb something that high to try crossing things that sharp. No thank you, not his idea of a good time at all.

Thankfully, the six-foot-tall hole cut into the fence they had made wasn’t discovered and hastily patched up. He tugged on one of the cut edges, pulling it to the side to widen the gap as he squeezed through. Then he just kept running, until he was out of range and the blinding spotlights could expose him no longer. Eventually the even plains turned bumpy, dips in the ground in ranging sizes alongside tall fir trees. Amongst them, he counted six people running alongside him, even though they were all spread out wide and far apart.

They did it, the mission was a success. Masky slowed down only slightly, rolling (Y/N) off his shoulder and back into the previous bridal position, then after picking up the pace as if he never slowed in the first place. He was glad, they retrieved her safely. Although most wouldn’t look at (Y/N) and think of her as someone who was ‘safe’, even in the dark night only lit up by the full moon, her bruises and injuries were impossible to miss. However, they could fix a broken proxy. They could patch her up and help her heal. The last thing they wanted was a fatality, to have to see their comrade’s corpse and drag it out of the facility. That would have been the worst-case scenario.

But they weren’t just out of the woods yet.


	22. Chapter 22

Her body jostled roughly as she draped across Masky’s arms. The group of proxies fled through the night, in comparison to the soldiers who were hellbent on catching them, the proxies appeared as a ragtag lot. While the trained agents that pursued them were equipped with bulletproof vests and guns that shot bullets with the power to tear them apart, the proxies had someone, or something, far more powerful and sinister that was aiding them.

Slenderman’s power was a force to be reckoned with, especially when angered. And messing with his underlings was definitely something that angered him. One by one, the being picked off the troopers, their cries of agony served as a warning to those behind them and a reassurance to the proxies that they were being bought room to breathe. Masky and (Y/N) were in the middle of a protective circle formed by the rest with Hoodie and Kate on the left and right flank respectively. They kept an eye out for enemies while providing directions for Anya and Ramses who led them in the front, mirroring Hoodie and Kate’s position. Toby and Casey were near the back, taking out whoever go too close.

Merely hours ago, the fields surrounding the ‘secret’ base (Y/N) was being held at was silent, peaceful even. Now however, the metaphorical war drums were deafening in everyone’s heads. Blood stained the grass and the bare dirt trails. Bodies lay scattered in the wake of the Slenderman. Even once they reached deep enough into the woods which proved as a sanctuary, everyone was on edge, anticipating an attack. They stayed in their paranoid state for nearly twenty minutes before a static filled message saturated their minds.

“Wait here, I will make sure there is no one left.“

Masky sighed, after the adrenaline had ran out he found carrying an unconscious woman and running full speed at once was much harder than anticipated. He laid (Y/N) on the ground carefully, making sure her neck was properly supported the whole time. Ramses sat on his haunches next to her, placing his bunched-up jacket beneath her head. With how weak (Y/N) was, she could easily hurt her neck and cut off her own breathing.

“Someone remind me why that idiot didn’t come with us? She looks like she’ll bite the dust any second.” Kate grumbled, sauntering around the group protectively while peering through the trees.

“We’ve been over that already, Jack needed to get his place ready for her. By the looks of it, (Y/N) is going to be staying down there for a while.” Hoodie responded authoritatively from his place next to Toby.

“I’m with Kate on this one,” the twitching boy began, “one wrong move and she’s toast.”

“Give the man some credit, Ramses is doing the best he can, ain’t ya?” Casey nudged the crouching man.

“I am, but I’d be quicker if you weren’t breathing down my neck.” The normally silent man glared over his shoulder at the red head who threw his hands up in mock surrender before stepping back. “I’ll only be able to patch her up enough to make sure she’s stable, EJ is going to have to do the life-saving shit.”

“The only thing the rest of us can do is just hold tight and wait for master.” Masky was occupying himself with readjusting his mask, “I’m not carrying her back, that’s for damn sure.”

“Why’s that big guy, I thought-” Casey started with a smirk before Masky grabbed his collar with one fist and pulled his face in close.

“Lay off kid.” He growled; Casey gripped his wrist to trying in vain to pry his fingers off.

“Knock it off you two. I don’t want to hear it.” Hoodie barked, stopping both men in their tracks.

Anya led Casey by the shoulder away from the group, mostly to make sure the cocky idiot wouldn’t start anything and to talk to him in attempt to calm her nerves.

“So,” she kicked the ground and leaned against a trunk of a tree, “what’s your take on all this?”

“On what, one of my only friends getting tortured in some FBI base? Oh, I’m just loving it.” He snapped back.

“No need to be a prick, we’re all freaked out you drama queen. I meant, why do you think they saved her?”

“I don’t really care why, I’m just glad they did.” He answered honestly.

“She’s my friend as much as she is yours, but you can’t ignore the rumors.” Anya whispered.

“I don’t care about some worthless gossip either.”

“You might not,” she jerked her head in the direction of the rest of the team, “but they probably do. You can’t deny how bad it looks. Your trainee gets caught killing proxies then you get picked up by the feds. They probably think she squealed.”

The red head chuckled, “Then they’re damn fools, (Y/N) would never snitch.”

“You’re probably right.” She ran a hand over her face and into her dirty blonde hair.

“Not probably,” Casey slung his arm around her shoulders, “definitely. And if you need some reassurance, just look at ‘er. Does she look like someone who cooperated?”

“Wipe that smug look off your face.” She rolled her eyes with a gentle smile, but she couldn’t deny that the younger man had a point. (Y/N) was beaten up pretty good, the areas of her skin that weren’t covered in blood was ridden with bruises and wounds of varying sizes, not to mention her leg. She sucked in her bottom lip while she grimaced, watching Ramses inspect the leg injury closely. She forced her eyes away, but what the Irish man said made sense. For the time being, she was relieved, just happy to see her best friend was out of that god forsaken place, she let out a sigh before she sunk into a sitting position alongside Casey.

Twenty more minutes passed by when all the proxies felt the dull ringing and static re-enter their minds. This tone was different than the one used to communicate between the servants and their master. It started low a quiet, easily ignorable, until it built up to be so loud and high that it drove them to the brink of sanity. This tone meant that it was time to cross over into the Slender woods. Slenderman possessed the ability to shield his domain completely from that of the human world. As long as he or those who he employed were in a woodland area, they could pass between the barrier separating the human’s world and his (although the size of the Slender woods was not as big). This allowed for the Creepypastas and proxies to be able to go to different cities and towns with little traveling or effort. Normally proxies as high ranking as superiors and supervisors could handle moving on their own. However, those with access to pass have the key to go between in their minds in a way, and with (Y/N) in her current unconscious and battered condition, she didn’t have the strength to use her ‘key’. In addition, the others were too worn down from infiltrating and fleeing to be able to handle the strain of passing with her, which was why Slenderman had to come with, that and because it was an extreme understatement to say he was only a little pissed off. And the best way to calm down a rageful eldritch monster? Bloodshed.

Hoodie acted quickly, fitting for the man who was the unspoken first in command. He picked up (Y/N) carefully and tossed Ramses his jacket back. Looking up at the sky, he waited patiently for the stars to fade. That was the easiest sign to tell that you had crossed over, the full moon had taken on a redder hue and the stars had completely disappeared. He turned back to the group, announcing his orders, “Let’s hurry back, Kate’s right. The sooner (Y/N) gets medical attention the better. No slacking off.”

That was all that needed to be said, once he finished speaking everyone was on the move again. Time was finnicky in the Slender Woods, especially when you were crossing over the border with so many people at once. It could take an hour, or it could take ten minutes to reach the mansion that acted as a hub for proxies and allies alike. That’s why it was always wise to plan around the weird time layout in case time decided to be on the slower side. It was fortunate for everyone, especially (Y/N), that the master had come along, one of the best perks of crossing over with him was that he could considerably speed up time for transportation. It was rare thing to see him too far away from the mansion, usually meaning that something urgent had come up. No one really knew why, the being was cryptic and rarely communicated his reasonings to anyone, not his allied Creepypasta nor the proxies who served him.

Although they had completely crossed into their home territory, they still couldn’t find any trails to follow. That was on purpose; it was a safety measure that if anyone had infiltrated, they wouldn’t have a trail of breadcrumbs leading them right to the mansion. In their newly turned stage, one of the first things they learned were subtle paths and landmarks to get around. They group soon approached the most traveled trail; it was a shallow river that could be compared to a large puddle. Alongside it, there was no bank, only fallen leaves framing its edges. It could be a pain for anyone who unknowingly got too close and would step into the frigid water. The river was a track many went down, as it would take you nearly half the distance to the mansion, but where the water ended, actual trails that were worn into the woodland’s floor appeared and would direct you where to go.

The night air was crisp, a hint of fog swaying just at the ends of the proxies’ range of view. The leaves beneath their feet, sadly, didn’t crunch. They were too soggy from the recently melted snow fall and resembled something decayed and mushy rather than a leaf. They weaved through the thick trunks of towering oak trees, most of them did it automatically, having been adapted to the thicket for many years. Other than their quiet rustling and soft breathing, the night was silent. Except for Toby’s tics of course, at any given moment he would let out a grunt or snapped his neck to the side fast enough to emit a loud cracking sound. Sounds like those undoubtedly terrified the people who cowered before him in their last moments of life, watching his twitching movements as the glint in his orange googles glowed even brighter when he raised his hatchet high into the air. Yet to the proxies, more-so the superiors than anyone else, his tics were calming. The same way someone feels relaxed hearing rain hitting their window or a clock ticking as time passed.

It took the party around ten minutes to see the river taper off and muddy trails etched into the floor of the woods. They picked the one that was considerably wider than the others, various sized footprints could be seen scattered along it. It made sense, it was the path leading to the mansion the quickest, and the road that was most commonly taken. It took them an additional twenty minutes to see the soft lights of the mansion through the vegetation. The building was sat in the middle of a large circular yard that was clear of any trees but littered with small differently colored flowers and tall grass, it was like it was built smack dab in the middle of a small meadow. The building itself looked on the broken down side; several boarded up windows and dingy brown and gray siding, only hints of the original light blue paint could be picked out beneath the grime of nature and aging. In areas on the exterior where the paint had peeled away revealed the dark red brick foundation beneath. The sight of it screamed abandoned in every way you looked at it, even the bright lights that poured out from the dirty windows was hardly any consolation that anyone had actually lived there.

The sounds of heavy boots stomping their way across the rotted wood of the front porch filled the silent night. Anya stepped forward and landed several hard knocks on the dark brown double doors, cursing them in her head when it took the residents more than a few moments to answer. Could you blame her? Her dearest friend laid crumpled and broken in the arms of one of the scariest dudes in the Slender Forest, desperately needing the doctor inside to see to her.

A couple more seconds past before the recognizable sounds of the door being unlocked and the brass doorknob twisting. One of the two was pulled open, the wood of the doorframe creaking at the movement. It revealed a teenager, a bit on the shorter side, dressed in all green attire. His red pupiled and black sclera eyes dripping blood that stained his translucent and pale cheeks scanned across the group, obviously finding what they were looking for as they stopped on Hoodie and (Y/N). His face turned to one of mild shock, sucking in a breath through closed teeth.

“Sheesh, she looks like hell-” the shaggy blonde-haired boy began, his voice having an electronic and glitching edge to it.

“Can’t you see now’s not the time? Open the damn door already.” Masky cut him off gruffly.

The teen, Ben, shot the older man a glare, clearly unhappy with being snapped at out of nowhere. He didn’t give him a retort however, only a huff before swinging one door in completely, the other one following suit. You should never judge a book by its cover, and the mansion only served as a testament to that saying. From the exterior, the place was decrepit, old, moldy looking. On the inside however, it was a completely different story. The group stepped inside fully into the foyer, a bright chandelier suspended from the high ceiling and casting a bright light upon them. The off white tiled floor was covered in a mahogany colored runner carpet, leading a straight path to a wide arch styled doorway that reached the sides of both staircases, giving a view of the currently empty living room. On the left and right of the doorway stood two recently polished wooden staircases that curved to the inside, leading to the second story.

Kate was the first to look up at the balcony that connected the two staircases and hung over the doorway to the living room, feeling her skin prickle with the familiar sensation of being watched. To say it took her off guard to see nearly all the residents standing at the top watching the entrance startled her would be an understatement, as it caused the unsuspecting woman to take in a startled gasp.

Audiences were totally not her thing.


	23. Chapter 23

Surprisingly, Toby was the first one to notice Kate’s discomfort as her white and black smudged mask was tilted upwards. He followed her gaze, understanding immediately why she froze up. On the platform connecting both sides of the staircases stood practically all the residents of the mansion. It was rare to see so many of the Creepypastas in one place, most couldn’t stand to be around the others for longer than a few minutes without breaking out into a feud. Toby shot out an elbow, landing it on Masky’s side which earned him an angry grunt, until he also noticed the large group of onlookers.

“Y’know, instead of just standing around one of ya can be helpful for once and go tell Jack we’re here.” He raised his voice, both out of irritation and so they could hear him.

A tall man with gray skin and glowing yellow eyes spoke up, leaning over the banister so he didn’t have to talk loudly, “Aight, I’ll go let him know then.“

“Thank you, Puppeteer. As for the rest of you, this isn’t something that you all need to crowd around for.” A deep voice laced with static boomed throughout the foyer as Slenderman emerged from the living room, his head just barely missing the top of the doorway.

At once, Anya, Casey, and Rameses all became fidgety and restless; obviously unnerved by the master’s presence. Even (Y/N) started to stir slightly. However, the other proxies were deadly still, ready and awaiting his next command. A few Creepypastas spoke lowly, obviously gossiping, but they still dispersed and went about their way.

“Should we wait here for Eyeless Jack or go down and meet him?” Masky asked, shifting on his feet.

“Let us wait for him, he’s been preparing his office to receive her. How is her condition?”

“Rameses was able to buy her enough time to get her here, however we don’t know all of her injuries.” Hoodie answered with a nod.

“As expected. Eyeless Jack will perform an in-depth examination. When she is conscious again, she can fill in the blanks for us regarding what happened. I’ll leave you to it.” The master finished, glancing over the proxies, and dismissing the majority of them, except for Kate, Anya, and Hoodie. He left the foyer, going up the right staircase and most likely making his way to his office.

Not long after he left them, a tall and familiar undead doctor appeared at the bottom of the left-hand staircase, having just walked out of the hallway next to it. He stood next to a stretcher, much more comfortable looking with an actual hospital mattress meant for it, unlike the bare ones he normally used for incidents like these. The group of three, four if you counted the unconscious woman, made their way over to him. Hoodie wasted no time laying her down gently onto it while the other two women held it steady to prevent the bed from rolling.

“I only need those two to help with this,” Jack nodded to Hoodie. It was somewhat of a bizarre sight, seeing two similarly tall men who wore masks concealing their identity right next to each other. Bizarre indeed, but to everyone in this mansion it was a normal and everyday sight to see. “Thank you for getting her on this.” He thanked him, patting an iron bar that peeked up slightly over the mattress.

“No problem. I’m assuming that you knew already, but the master wants a detailed report of her examination,” he paused, crossing his arms across his chest tensely. He was a difficult man to read, easily comparable to a stone wall, but there was no doubt that he was slightly uncomfortable. “Something like this could decide whether she’s kept or euthanized.”

Anya felt a pang of panic shoot straight through her stomach. Euthanasia: It was rare for the master to exterminate proxies, yet it still was a possibility. (Y/N) could definitely heal from this, proxies broke their legs all the time, right? The only thing that would bring into question her worth and whether or not she should be kept alive would be if she had problems walking after being healed. The process was pretty humane, or as humane as you could get in a place like this, for someone who was being taken out because of an injury. A blend of potassium chloride, pancuronium bromide, and sodium thiopental would be injected into the proxy, if used with anesthesia it would be a nearly painless way out. Anya hated to think about this, (Y/N) was one of her best friends after all. She was someone Anya looked up to, someone who brought her a feeling of normalcy when the duties of being an underling to someone like Slenderman became too much. The thought of her being strapped down and given the lethal injection, it was painful to even imagine.

Eyeless Jack said nothing in response, no one did, all he did was give the executive proxy a short nod. A few seconds passed, full of tense silence, before Hoodie excused himself and walked away in the opposite direction. Jack took his place at the top side of the gurney behind (Y/N)’s head, taking hold of the handles.

“Kate, get on the left to help me steer it. You,” he moved his head toward Anya. She normally would’ve given her name when it was obvious someone didn’t know, but he didn’t give her a chance to. “just follow us. I’ll tell you what door and you open it all the way.”

Anya rarely was in the mansion, just the way she liked it, resulting her in following closely behind the two pushing (Y/N). They knew the labyrinth of the hallways like it was the back of their hands, a fact made obvious by how they led the way with no hesitation when it came to things like how fluidly they took corners, knowing the exact route they had to follow with no hesitation in their movements. Then again, that’s how all Creepypasta and executive proxies carried themselves generally.

Some hallways and rooms of the mansion were polar opposites in appearance to the outside walls of the mansion, typically the ones used frequently by the tenants of the house. Like the hallways near the entrance for example, lights with black lace lampshades fastened to the walls and spilling out a warm off-white glow that illuminated the hall beautifully. The chestnut door with light colored scratch marks along the walls with dull golden knobs, so many that to an outsider, they would blindly assume they this hall was the same one as the neighboring hall. However, the halls that weren’t used all the time looked dilapidated and run down in comparison. Many of the lights had broken bulbs, busted shades, or were missing from the paint peeling walls altogether. The doors were in no better condition; Some had wood that would be cracked with large slivers missing, others were so decimated and rotted to the point that only a large piece of wood was hanging loosely off the weathered hinges.

Currently, they were all walking down the latter of the two areas. Eyeless Jack was a man who deeply appreciated solidarity. He hated the constant buzz and chatter that the others made, his heighted hearing forced him to listen to every sound and pulled his focus away easily. Sure, when he first moved in he’d have to deal with the occasional leaks from around the windows, or the lights and outlets in his room would suddenly stop working, but after some renovations it was perfect for him.

The old wooden floorboards squawked loudly beneath the sudden weight of their footsteps, filling the dark hallway outside Jack’s bedroom and medical room, it was illuminated only by one flickering light near one of his doors.

“You ever plan on getting that thing fixed?” Kate asked while Jack busied himself unlocking the door. It was her own way of trying to alleviate heavy situations, asking questions about the obvious to steer people’s attention away from the root of their stress. That may have worked like a charm with normal people, but it didn’t help too much in this case.

“One of these days I will.” Jack’s voice was distant as he murmured out his answer, just like he was. But it wasn’t a personality trait that his tone was so cold, he was just lost in his thoughts as his mind droned over what he needed to do.

He reached into the room from around the doorframe, shoving his set of keys into his back pockets. With a soft click of the flip being switched, a white light filled the medical office. Jack walked off to the corner of the room filled with cabinets and counters, rummaging through drawers hastily. Anya helped Kate push the rolling bed past the threshold and into the room.

“Where do you want her?” Kate called out, throwing a glance over her shoulder towards the man.

“This is where I wanted you two to aid me,” Jack began, pulling off his thick cotton gloves that exposed his gray hands and sharp claws and tugging on a pair of latex gloves. “I’ll need you both to undress her, then redress her in one of the hospital gowns. They should be in a storage tub over there.” Without looking behind him, he pointed to a corner filled with boxes and storage containers haphazardly stacked. “I doubt she’d be comfortable with me doing that.“

“I’ll go look, you got this?” Kate said in a hushed tone to the Russian woman beside her, it was one of the few times the usually rough and tough woman spoke softly. Well, softer than she normally did.

Anya gave her a curt nod, not taking her eyes off the (H/C) haired woman laying down in front of her. Before she could start, Jack walked over pulling a small steel table behind him and stopped it next to her. It had a large bowl filled with water and a large mustard yellow body sponge. He spared (Y/N) a glance, his royal blue mask disguising any reaction he may have made at the sight. He walked away, and with him back at the counters in the corner of the room and Kate in the opposite corner, Anya began her task. She took a stuttering breath, reaching out a slighting shaking hand, and took a thin strand of hair that had been stuck to (Y/N)’s forehead by dried blood. She swept it away with a grimace. She dipped the sponge into the lukewarm water, gently wiping away the blood on (Y/N)’s face.

She washed away blood she saw already exposed by where the patient’s gown didn’t reach. Walking to the left-hand side of the bed, Anya pulled up (Y/N)’s left arm to clean it like she did her right one. She had already made a mental note of the bandage wrapped loosely around her wrist but was horrified when she lifted it to find it completely limp. Sure, all of her body was limp; She was passed out after all. But it wasn’t a normal kind of limp, it felt almost… jelly like? A small part in Anya already knew, having seen injuries like this before, but even after she unwrapped the dirtied bandage she had to choke back her tears.

“Kate-” Her voice was quiet, scared that if she spoke any louder the sob she was holding back would fall from her lips. No, she had to be stronger than that, she couldn’t break down now, for (Y/N)’s sake.

Kate didn’t respond verbally but picked up on the distressed tone immediately and rushed over. “Oh god…” She sucked in through gritted teeth, grimacing at how excruciating that had to have been. “Jack, you need to see this.”

“Is she decent?” He kept his face pointed forwards respectfully.

“Yeah.“

At the assurance, he shuffled quickly over to Anya’s side. Jack was a highly trained surgeon, the second his eyeless gaze fell on the limb Anya held gingerly in a shaky grasp, he already could tell how destroyed the wrist was.

Just like Hoodie had earlier, he crossed his arms across his chest. “Hm, we’ll need to hurry this along. I can finish the exam quickly so I can begin surgery to reconstruct it.” He rambled off quickly, more to himself than to the women in front of him. “Get her changed, don’t worry about cleaning anymore blood off her.” He spun around on his heel, quickly disappearing into a door on the side of the room.

Kate fetched the article of clothing, colored the stereotypical blue that all hospitals had. She swapped it out with the dirty and ripped one (Y/N) wore. She took the opportunity to excuse herself to dispose of it, leaving the room and heading upstairs to no doubt inform the other of what she saw.

“Where’s Kate?” Jack questioned, noticing the proxy’s absence.

“She went upstairs, going to throw out the gown.”

“Doubt she’s coming back then. We’ll start without her.” He fidgeted with the pages in the notebook he held, thumbing through the pages until he found a blank one.

“We?” Anya shifted on her feet.

“I won’t need you for longer than a moment, I just need to ask for details about any injuries you saw beneath her clothes.”

“Ah, well there was nothing really in particular. Except, she had some harsh bruising on her abdomen.”

“Were they red colored, like the appearance of blood?”

“No, mostly purple and pinkish.”

“Good, she probably doesn’t have any internal bleeding then.” He nodded, scribbling something quickly down on the paper. “You can go now, unless you want to stay?”

The woman shook her head fervently, as much as she cared about her best friend she couldn’t stand to see her in her current condition. It was like a dagger piercing her heart. Jack gave her the directions back to the foyer of the mansion, and after that she departed.

Jack carried on with his examination, recording what he saw on the lined sheet. So far he had down the heavy bruising of her abdomen, a broken wrist and leg, a broken nose, and a bruised arm with track marks from the number of injections. Everything he wrote down left him with a strange tightness in his chest. It was a bizarre sensation similar to dread, one he wasn’t used to feeling and hadn’t felt in a long time. Sure, he walked with (Y/N) only a few weeks ago and consoled her slightly over the loss of her trainee, but she was still a mere acquaintance to him. It was nonsensical for him to feel anything about her condition. He was reading too much into it, that’s all. He was just taken aback by the extent of the beatings she occurred, that was it. Torture was something that never sat well with him, especially considering what happened to him with the cult… anything resembling what he went through that night would upset him, even if so many years had passed that he lost count.

He took his notes, preparing to leave the room. As he went to shut the door, he looked back at (Y/N). Her chest rose and fell with a flutter, something that was oddly relieving to him. He huffed out a sigh, locking the door behind him.


	24. Chapter 24

Darkness

A sweet sensation, the feeling of a comforting cocoon shielding me from all the dangers in the world. Even a small hint of safety was a rare feeling for me. It came and went, as fleeting as the first snowflakes of winter, floating to the ground only to melt and disappear as soon as it touches the warm earth. This time was no different, as I was pulled out of the protection of my unconsciousness I could feel the gravity of my reality begin to fade back in. My eyes flickered weakly, trying to adjust to the bright white light shining directly into them. It took them longer than they did when after normally waking up, keeping my surroundings blurred and out of focus. Just as I noticed the room around me stop being a fuzzy array of color and slowly but surely turn into outlines of furniture, I heard a deep voice speak near me. It sounded like I was hearing it from underwater, and it was a life buoy thrown towards me. My mind reached towards it, focusing on it like a drowning woman. A familiar blue oval invaded my vision, the hazy black circles with slow dripping lines of what I knew to be tar down his mask. Seeing him made my brain go into overdrive, forcing me to become fully alert.

“(Y/N), are you awake?” He said, pressing on the edge of my eyebrow with his thumb and pulling my left eye open, shining a light into it. Reflexively I winced and tried to pull away from his hand, but his hold didn’t falter.

I tried answering but when I opened my mouth only a breathy whine came out. He flicked off the light and left my view. I wanted to turn and watch him, but even the thought of doing so felt draining. I started to see things normally and identified the room around me to be his mimicry of a clinic. I looked down at myself, noticing my clothes had been changed beneath a thin white sheet. My eyes never left my left arm, a cast from my hand to the middle of my forearm, obviously for my wrist.

“The surgery for that took quite a while, thankfully I was able to reconstruct the bone. You’ll have to watch it though, it’s more fragile than a normal broken bone. Here,” he pressed a button on the remote attached to the arm rest of the bed, slowly with a mechanical whirr it began to move into a position where I was sitting up slightly. “Drink this.” He extended a glass of water out to me, my right hand wrapping around it weakly despite my efforts.

He stared at it for a moment, piecing together that if he were to fully give me the cup I would drop it the second his hand left. With both of our hands clutching it, he guided the cup to my mouth and slowly tipped it as I drank. It was liquid bliss, the cool water rushing down and soothing my scratchy throat. I greedily drank it all, a bit crestfallen when it ran out and the cup was taken from me.

“Try speaking again.” Jack ordered, setting the cup down on the nearby table and sitting himself on a stool next to the bed.

I did as he requested, and even though the first words of my question stumbled out, I eventually asked, “How long have I been out?”

He looked behind him and read the white analog clock on the wall. “Three, going on four days. Not all that long since I put you in a coma.”

“You did what?” I winced, furrowing my brow as I looked towards the cavity in his mask where his eyes belonged. A medically induced coma was nothing new to me in my old line of work, but it was still shocking.

“Your brain needed the rest. I did some blood work and saw how much they injected you and didn’t want to risk anything by putting you under multiple times with multiple weaker anesthesia for the surgeries.” He rambled off, absentmindedly tapping the armrest. “It was a risk, considering the possibility that you could go under and not come back up, but it was our safest option.”

“Did I miss out on anything fun while I was out?” putting emphasis on the word ‘fun’ with sarcasm.

“Not really,” he shrugged with a quick jerk of his shoulders, “Everyone in the mansion is talking about you but other than that nothing out of the ordinary.”

“So, I’m famous now right?”

Jack let out a small huff of laughter, lasting only a second before he quickly recollected himself back to be the normal statue he was. “I guess you are. Anyways,” he got up from the stool. I never realized just how tall he was before, which was likely because I’ve never seen him from the angle of lying down. “I should probably go let one of the proxies know you’re up. They wanted to interrogate you a little.”

I let my head fall back into the thin pillow, letting out a rumbling groan. “Can I pretend to be asleep just like, a little longer?”

He chuckled, sounding just like it did when I took a walk with him in the woods that one day. It felt like it happened so long ago, when really it couldn’t have been more than a month ago. His muffled chuckles were enjoyable, the contrast they had compared to his normal deadpan gravely voice. They were a bit higher in pitch, making him sound almost like a human. I briefly wondered what an actual laugh from him would sound like, furthermore what it would sound like without the mask diluting its sound. I brushed the small thought away. Who cares? It’s a laugh, I had more pressing things to think about. An ‘interrogation’.

“I’m afraid not. I wouldn’t worry about it though; I don’t think they’d grill you too much after just waking up.”

“You’d be surprised.”

ack leave the room through my peripherals. He softly shut the door behind him, leaving me alone with my thoughts in the quiet room. It was refreshing, I could try to play catch up in my head with my memories before whatever proxy showed up. When I heard ‘interrogation’, my mind immediately flashed memories of that damned room in whatever government building I was holed up in. I could almost taste the blood in my mouth again, could almost feel the piercing burns of my injuries being inflicted. Okay, time to derail that train of thought. Instead, I focused on what got me there in the first place, thinking over my events like a book and starting at the beginning.

When I thought about the informants’ apartment, Warren immediately came to mind. I wonder if they told him about what happened to me, or the other trainees for that matter. I doubted it. I hoped he was okay; he was probably worried sick, from his point of view I went off to a mission then disappeared abruptly. Sure, my other trainees Kimberly and Ryan probably were worried too, but they hadn’t immediately gotten attached to me like Warren had. In addition to that, they knew me for only a fraction of the time that I knew Warren. I decided that the first chance I got, I’d find someone to pass a message along to at least Warren, to let him know I’d be okay.

Just as I was thinking over people I could possibly ask to do such a thing, the door opened again to reveal Masky and Kate, with Jack hanging back just outside the room’s threshold.

“I assume I’m not allowed in there while this is going on?” Jack asked, rolling his shoulders back in a relaxed manner.

Masky turned towards the taller man, shaking his head. “Nah, we want you here to help weigh in on our decision at the end of the interrogation. Is that fine by you?”

“Yeah, not like I got a choice really.” Jack responded flatly as he stepped fully into the room and closed the door behind him.

“Let’s get this thing started then.” Masky stated, walking up to my bedside and sitting in the stool next to it that Jack left there.

Kate grabbed a nearby folding chair that was propped against a wall and set it down several feet away from Masky, while Jack just stood nearby with his hands hidden in his jean pockets. Although he looked like he couldn’t care less in his body language, I knew he was probably paying attention intently.

“Good morning (Y/N), you like you’re doing better than the last time I saw you.” Masky nodded, clicking his pen to have it ready to write on the large yellow notepad he carried in with him.

“I mean, I’d hope I look less busted now than right after being tortured.” I said with a hint of sarcasm lacing my voice.

Masky didn’t respond. He just flipped to a new page in his notebook and wrote something down at the top of it, the faint scratching noises filling the otherwise silent room.

“Starting off, I’m sure you know this already but it’s kind of protocol; it’s no use to lie to us. We already have a fairly decent idea of what went on, this is your chance to fill in the blanks, so don’t try being dishonest.” He rambled off half-heartedly. I heard this spiel many times over the years, only very few times was I the one it was being directed at.

“Comprende.” I responded, lazily throwing up an ‘okay’ hand sign.

“So, how about you tell me everything from the time Toby and I left your cabin with the trainees.”

“Got it. So, Warren and I headed up to the informants’ apartment. I got the information I needed along with a weapon I left there for a repair. I left Warren with them, planning on picking him up after the mission, and headed towards the target’s house. I staked out the place until around night fall, then I snuck up on the trailer. I assumed the target was inside because the house was dark but there was light in the windows of the trailer.” I paused, my eyes drifting upwards to the left as I recalled the events. I waited patiently for Masky to stop scribbling before continuing.

“Continue.”

“I snuck inside, and there was this weird curtain divider concealing where he was sitting. I could see the figure of someone sitting in front of a screen, so I pulled the curtain and struck. But it wasn’t a person, someone set up a mannequin. I didn’t see my attacker, but someone hit my head from behind. After that I passed out and woke up bound to a chair. I lost track of time but…well I think you can put together what happened for a few hours after that.”

“If you don’t mind Masky, can I interject with a question?” Jack piped up.

“Sure, go ahead.” He responded with a nod.

“Can you explain what caused your wrist and leg injury?”

“Yeah, the wrist thing happened while they were questioning me. I wouldn’t answer so they took my pipe wrench to it.” I explained, Jack nodding in response while Masky continued writing quickly. Kate just sat, one leg bent and crossed over the other as she watched me silently.

“Mhm, and your leg?” Jack urged me to continue, likely making a mental note of the causes.

“That happened as the alarms were going off. I got out of my room and I was wandering around the facility for a bit until I found some dead guard. Another guard saw me, and I think that he assumed I was the one who killed his buddy. We got into a fight, and it ended in him stomping on my leg.” I finished, raising my busted leg a little to add emphasis.

“Thanks, that’s all I got for now.” Jack said, taking his hands out of his pockets and crossing his arms across his chest.

“Then can you pick up from where you left off, (Y/N)? You were talking about being tortured. You don’t have to go in detail, just tell us what happened after.”

“Right, got it. So, they finally gave up because I wasn’t talking, then they carted me off to some room to rest a little I guess and gave me some basic first aid. I passed out after that. Then I woke up to the sounds of the alarm going off. I think whoever was taking care of me got interrupted while they were bonding me to the bed, because the restraints were half done and barely on. They even left the door ajar a little.”

“Yeah, that was Toby. He broke a damn window and the whole place went into a frenzy.” Kate finally spoke up, waving her hand around while revealing the reason.

“Gotcha, well once I woke up I left my room and started trying to find a way out, then I found that dead guard, and the rest is history.”

“Thank you for cooperating, it makes this whole shit-show easier for all of us, believe me.” Masky sighed, finished his writing, and rested the pen in his lap to run a hand through his tousled dark hair. “Well to be honest (L/N), we don’t have any more questions for you really. We have the tape recorder from the questioning, so we know you didn’t talk. We just needed your account to get a rough idea of the visuals. I do however,” he paused, turning in his stool to look at Jack “have some questions for you about her recovery.”

“Shoot.” Jack said, giving Masky the green light to ask what he wanted.

“Well, give me the best- and worst-case scenario for her.”

“Even her worst-case scenario is optimistic, but it’s the most likely considering how severe the trauma was. Especially in that wrist of hers, I had to surgically put the shattered bone back together-” Right as Jack finished explaining, Kate interrupted with a noise of disgust.

“That’s fucking brutal- please spare the details.”

Jack let out a slightly irritated sigh, “Anyways, as I was saying: worst-case is that she’ll experience possibly chronic pain in her wrist and might even develop arthritis. However, I can easily provide her with the medications to cope with both. As for her leg, with Slender’s presence being stronger over her now that she’s in the mansion, I feel like that will heal at an accelerated rate and without lasting complications. Best case is the same thing for her leg, but that her wrist heals similarly and won’t have any long-term side effects.”

“Thanks. Well, with that I think we won’t have to worry about the possibility of euthanasia-”

“Wait, hold the fuck up” I exclaimed, shooting upwards in the bed, trying to ignore the sharp pangs from my leg and wrist as a result of the sudden movement.

Both Kate and Masky sat up in their chairs, ready to hop to their feet instinctively if I pulled anything. Jack weaved in between them and circled around to squeeze between the-foot-wide space between the wall and the bed. He, surprising gently, took hold of my shoulders and began to slowly push me back down into a laying position. At first I resisted it, but I felt too fatigued to keep it up and just let him guide me back.

“Real bright idea to say that in front of her.” Jack grumbled out, looking directly at the proxy duo as his hands stayed on my shoulders a little longer to ensure I wouldn’t shoot back up.

“I didn’t think she’d flip out-”

“You think she’d just be completely fine with you saying you guys are thinking about killing her?” Jack cut off Masky sharply. He glanced down at me, a silent command for me to stay still and not try getting back up. “If you two are done with the questions, then maybe it’s time for you to take your leave.” Jack huffed out.

Surprisingly silent, they both listened and stood from their seats and walked to the door. Kate walked out first with no hesitation, but Masky slowed down and looked over his shoulder at Jack who had been following behind them closely. He spoke to him in a tone too hushed for me to hear, but I saw Jack nod and usher him out of the room fully, shutting the door behind Masky.

“Well, that could’ve gone better.” I muttered out, not expecting Jack to hear me.

“Yeah, well Masky wanted to let you know he’s sorry.”

“And he couldn’t apologize to me directly?” I turned my head towards Jack and squinted my eyes in distaste, to which he shrugged.

“That guy is too proud to let his ego take a direct hit. This is probably the best you’d get out of him. Can’t get too mad at him though, he’s overworked even on his best days.” Jack spoke, using reason to calm me down.

“I guess.”

I didn’t talk anymore after that, something that I think Jack was silently grateful for. After he was finished tidying the infirmary up he wished me a good night, despite it being early morning, and left through a door that was connected to his bedroom. I was relieved to finally fall back asleep, just hoping that the next time I woke up I wouldn’t have to go through something like the proxies talking about euthanizing me.


	25. Chapter 25

I woke up to a cold little hand prodding at my arm, the chill it gave me raised goosebumps on my skin. I rolled my head to the side, my eyesight not yet fully clear and only able to see a hazy blob of brown and pink. With my good arm, I reached up and wiped the sleep away from my eyes, only to be startled by the little girl next to my bed.

“Good morning! I’m Sally, and this is Charlie.” She excitedly introduced herself and her stuffed bear, shoving it towards my face to let me have a closer look. It was worn and raggedly, with one button eye and a ball of black thread in place of the other eye. 

I remembered being told about a child Creepypasta back when I first became a proxy, but no matter how many trips I made to the mansion I had never seen her myself. She had long and tangled brown hair with short bangs to frame her pale face that was streaked and stained with traces of dirt and blood. She wore a pink trapeze styled dress with a pleated collar. It was in a similar state as her face from what I could see, stained and bearing little tears at the edges of her baggy sleeves and skirt.

“Nice to meet you Sally,” I paused, turning to look towards the bear, “and Charlie. I’m-”

“You’re (Y/N)! We already know.” She pulled her toy away, hugging it closely to her chest. “The whole mansion knows about you, how you got hurt and that you’re going to be down here for a while.”

“Oh really?” I was a bit surprised at the news, although I shouldn’t have been considering that the Creepypastas were notorious gossips due to how easily they got bored.

“Mhm, Jack said that no one is allowed to see you right now though. How are you feeling?”

“I’m doing alright, I’ll be good as new soon with a doctor like Jack.” It was a white lie; my arm and leg were painfully achy. But I wasn’t about to vent to a little kid that I was feeling like shit.

“Maybe when you’re feeling better we can play!” She beamed at me hopefully, an adorable little gap between her two front teeth.

“I don’t think so. Didn’t I say I didn’t want anyone down here?” I heard Jack scold from across the room before I could respond. I turned my head to his voice. I hadn’t even notice him walk in, and by the looks of it, neither did Sally.

“I know… what if she was lonely? I just wanted to play.” Sally sulked slightly.

Jack walked up to us, setting down a tray on top of a machine before ruffling her hair. “I know, but if I let you come down here and play then the others will try too. Why don’t you run upstairs and play with them?”

“No one else wants to play! Not even Ben, he’s trying to beat his game and he says it’s one player only.” Sally continued petulantly; her voice was muffled as she hid the bottom half of her face behind her teddy’s head.

Jack kneeled down so he could be closer to her height, “Then how about this, let me finish up here with (Y/N) and then we can go play for a bit. How does that sound?”

Sally looked up at him, eyes bright with excitement. “Okay! I’ll wait in the living room, bye-bye (Y/N)!” Sally said, gleefully running out before I had the chance to say bye back.

“She’s a cute kid.” I remarked, watching Jack as he stood up.

“Yeah, but she can also be a pain. Most of us don’t have the heart to tell her no, so she gets away with a lot.”

“I can see why; you don’t see something that…innocent around here often.”

He hummed in agreement, pressing the button on the remote to move the bed upwards like he did yesterday. Once I was in a more proper position, he grabbed the tray he had set aside on the machine and placed it on my lap. It held what I assumed was breakfast, but I had lost track of time, so it could’ve easily been any other meal. On the tray was a glass of water, half a bagel, and an apple. I thanked him for the food, finally feeling the hunger from not eating for a couple days hit me full force. I picked up the apple and took a bite.

“How are your injuries feeling?” He asked, picking up his notebook and a pencil, waiting for my response.

I finished chewing and swallowed before answering. “Both of the broken bones hurt like hell, everything else is just sore.”

He scribbled down my response quickly, “I was right, I thought that by now the pain meds would’ve worn off.” He continued talking as he walked off to the corner of the room where there was all kinds of different pill bottles and vials along with other medical supplies littering the counters, and there was surely more in the cupboards hanging above them. “I’m just going to give you take some basic over-the-counter pain meds for now. If the pain doesn’t go down, then I’ll give you something a little more potent. Also, while you were asleep I put your leg in a cast. I had it in a brace before since you came in on such short notice and it was the quickest thing but braces only help with fractures that aren’t as severe as yours.” I listened to him ramble on slightly, hearing someone talk about medical stuff again reminded me of my days before becoming a proxy and working in the hospital.

He found the bottle he was looking for, shaking out a couple pills into his gloved hand before walking over to me and depositing them on the tray, causing them to rattle as they rolled around.

“Thank you again, I appreciate this. And… I just wanted to say sorry for freaking out last time.”

He waved my apology off, shaking his head. “You don’t have to say sorry about that. You’re already stressed out about everything; they shouldn’t have said anything about euthanizing you in your condition.”

“…Do you think they’ll do it?”

He crossed his arms, pointing his masked face downwards and away from me. I wish I could just have a shred of a clue of what he was thinking, but unfortunately I didn’t. “If I’m honest, I don’t think so. But I don’t know. I rarely have anything to do with making the call whether or not it happens, I’m just the one who injects them. But from what I’ve seen, when it comes to proxies who face the needle because of their health, it’s when they’re on the brink of death and not even Slenderman or I can improve their condition. You were roughed up pretty bad, but you’ll only be out of commission for a few months at most before going back to the field. It would be more of a loss to get rid of someone with your experience than to just let you get better.”

The answer put me at ease, enough to the point I let out a little sign of relief. “Thanks.”

“No problem. The proxies are a big fan of efficiency, and if it means less work for them in the long run then they’ll choose that route. Oh, and by the way,” He looked back at me, “your coworker, Anya I believe her name was, got called up via the phones to come here a while back. She should be here any time now.”

I perked up at the news, “Really? That’s great, but why?”

“The proxies want to discuss with her about being an aid to help with you. Not medically, as I’m fully capable, but there’s some things that I’m sure you’d rather another woman help you with.”

At first, what he said confused me. Until I put two and two together. The ‘things’ he was talking about likely included stuff like bathing. Yet again I was relieved. No disrespect to Jack as I’m sure he’d agree, but I’d feel infinitely more comfortable with Anya helping me rather than him.

“In addition to that, I’m sure that seeing a familiar face would help boost your morale, which helps the process go by a little smoother.”

“You’re right. Truth be told, I was worried about how I could connect to make sure the others were doing well earlier.”

“The others?” He inquired.

“Yeah, my trainees and at least one of the other superiors that isn’t Anya.”

He hummed inquisitively. “You seem to be pretty close to your coworkers.”

“When you’re a proxy, you kinda have to be. Sure, you can be solitary all you want, but from experience, it feels better knowing you can rely on other proxies. Kind of like a family.”

After I spoke, silence hung in the air; only I couldn’t tell if it was comfortable or not. I assumed the latter, seeing Jack’s shoulders tense. He turned away, reaching up and rubbing his neck beneath the hood. He was clearly uncomfortable, made obvious by his uneasy body language, but I couldn’t figure out what I said to make him like that.

The door was rattled by a round of hurried knocks, making both of our attentions snap away from our conversation and towards it.

“It’s unlocked, come in.” Jack called out, still only a couple of feet away from my bedside.

The door swung open recklessly, resulting in Jack making an almost inaudible grunt of displeasure when he saw it slam into the wall. In paraded none other than the infamous proxy, Toby. His goggles were perched high on his head, buried in his umber hair. He threw a look over his shoulder into the hallway behind him, but his body blocked my view of it.

“We’re just got done. The deal is she’s gonna stop by here every other day like you suggested.” Toby quickly explained to Jack, rocking on his heels impatiently. “I gotta go, see yourself out when you’re done.” He directed to the hallway, speed-walking out once he was finished.

There was a beat of silence in the room before a figure from the hall stepped into it. I probably could’ve guessed off of what Toby had said, but the sight of Anya made a burst of joy flow through me. We locked gazes, and in seconds she had strode across the room and was hugging me with as much strength as she could. I returned the hug to the best of my ability, considering that I was sitting in a bed with limited use of one of my arms.

She pulled back after we had embraced for a few moments, her usually straight face had been pulled into a wide smile. “ _Dorogaya_ , you have no idea how happy I am to see you again. How’re you feeling?”

“Like shit, but I’ll live.” I chuckled. Anya gripped my non-injured hand, squeezing it affectionately.

“If you pull something like that again, I’ll make all this look like child’s play. You scared us half to death.” She threatened, I knew she wasn’t serious though.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say mama bear. Not like I chose to get my ass beat.”

“Still. You need to be more careful out there.” She murmured, her Russian accent almost too thick for me to hear the words, but years of getting used to it was the only reason I understood.

“I promise I will. But enough about all that, how’re things back at the cabin?”

Anya rubbed soothing little circles on the back of my hand, still held in her soft but firm grip. “They’re going to divvy up your trainees. Ramses, Casey, and I are all going to take care of one of ‘em until you’re back. No one knows who’s getting who; I asked if I could get Warren, but it’s still up in the air.”

“Warren…how’s he holdin’ up.”

“Worse than you are. First night that you disappeared, and no one knew where you were yet, the kid just…froze. He was in shock for the longest time, but once he got back to your place from the informants’ apartment, he crawled into his bed and closed the curtain. The other two trainees say he didn’t come out until the next day, and he’s been almost completely silent since.”

“God, that poor thing.” I muttered, wincing at the thought. “Does he know I’m okay?”

“No idea honestly, I think I was the first one they told. They just called up to my cabin and told me you were gonna be alright and to get down here asap.” She let go of her grip on my hand, giving my forearm a few assuring pats before retreating her hand completely. “I promise when I go back, I’ll make it top priority to spread the news myself just in case.”

I let out an anxious sigh, a faint sense of trembling hidden deep in my bones. “Thank you Anya, I have no idea what’d I’d do without you sometimes.”

“You don’t need to thank me, I’m just happy I could help out. Oh, that reminds me,” Anya shrugged off a strap that I hadn’t noticed when she came in. She pulled off the backpack and deposited it on a spot towards the foot of the bed. She unzipped it quickly and rummaged around inside. “I packed some stuff for you. Clothes, toiletries, that kind of thing. I thought it’d be at least a little comforting to have some stuff from home, but then I saw _this_.” Anya pulled from the black bag a little (F/C) notebook, with a small pen hidden inside the spiral.

“My notebook! God, I haven’t used that thing in so long.”

“Yeah, well now when you get bored you can write your thoughts down in something. Better yet, you could try drawing some more stuff.” Anya handed me the notebook, which I took eagerly.

I flipped through the pages, each greeting me with sketches composed of black scribbles. I never really wrote stuff down in it like a diary, but hey, if I got bored enough maybe I’d pick it up. The slightly worn cover felt familiar beneath my fingertips, some of the more torn spots catching on my nails. There were all types of sketches; some were of people but most of them were scenery, different spots in the woods or the occasional drawing of a cityscape.

“Anya… I don’t know how to thank you.”

She shushed me gently, waving my thanks off with a flick of her hand. “I already said you don’t need to thank me. I had to spend awhile in the hospital once too, I know how boring it gets. Little things like these make all the difference.”

Anya and I chatted a little for the next hour or so. It was incredibly calming, almost like we were back at the cabins just rewinding instead of in an infirmary. The bag was filled with more goodies, a little care package thrown together by Casey and Anya, and even Ramses had surprisingly contributed. Things like fuzzy lounge socks, little bottles of hand lotions, and a variation of my favorite snacks. I had no clue where they could get stuff like this on such short notice, and usually proxies who lived in the woods rarely made trips to towns or cities. But I didn’t dwell on that, I was too touched by the impromptu presents. Time passed by too fast, and Anya returned home. I didn’t notice when, but Jack must have left sometime while we had been talking.

I opened the notebook again, pulling the pen from the spiral and clicking it open. Flipping to a bare page, I scribbled down the date in the upper right corner before anything else. Then I set to work. I didn’t know what I was drawing at first, other than it would be a basic landscape. I drew a straight line, the line representing the horizon, but without the use of a ruler or something similar, the line was a tad bit wavy. Hm, I could work with that. With a few more sweeping brushes of the pen, I created choppy waves. I let myself go in my mind, pretending I was standing in the waves myself, feeling the brisk water slosh against my legs. I etched a half circle where the water ended, the sun casting its liquid golden rays over the beach, imagining the warmth spread across my skin. Tapping the dry land in front of the water, representing the pale-yellow sand-

“(Y/N)?” Jack’s voice interrupted my daydreaming, causing me to jump in the slightest as I snapped my head in his direction. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“Ah, it’s fine. You’re really quiet, I didn’t even hear you come in. Did you need something?”

He shook his head, shoving his hands into his jean pockets. “No, I don’t, I was just letting you know I need to leave the mansion for a bit to take care of some business. Think you’ll be alright for a couple hours?”

“Yeah I’ll be fine.” I nodded, clicking the pen close and shutting the sketchbook before setting both items on the bed next to me. “Actually, I was about to take a nap.”

“I’m a little surprised you’re awake still actually, usually a common side effect of the medicine is drowsiness.”

“Well, I guess it finally caught with me huh.”

“Suppose so. I’ll be heading out now.” He turned curtly, grabbing a duffle bag off the floor next to the door on his way out.

I decided to finish the drawing later. The sleepy effect of the pills really kicked in all at once it seemed. I pressed the button on the remote I had seen Jack using for the bed, flattening it a little to be more comfortable. I stared up at the ceiling, counting the little cracks and abnormalities until my consciousness was swept away in the same waves as my illustration.


	26. Chapter 26

Metal, iron specifically, was all I could taste.

It was like a gurgling fountain. A warm thick liquid that pooled in the back of my throat until I was forced to cough, a painful sensation accompanying it, like my throat was being pierced with thousands of needles. Cold; I was so, _so_ , cold. Sprawled out on the freezing concrete, it sucked away any warmth from my body. I lolled my head to the side, my eyesight fuzzy but still able to make out the splatters of where the blood from my mouth went after I expelled it. My eyelids flickered, and my head throbbed with pain. The light from the room I was in was bright, too bright. My eyes blinked rapidly to get adjusted to the light but also to make the blurry film that was impairing my vision go away. Even through my unclear eyesight and quick blinks, I made out two black legs. They walked towards my battered form, the closer they got the easier my eyes focused on them. Black tactical boots with thick laces and lined patterns built into the shoe.

Adrenaline set my blood on fire and made my limbs twitch, willing for them to move and take me away. But it was like there was some of the concrete I was laying on mixed with the adrenaline, forcing my body against its will to stay immobile. My heartbeat increased so loud that the figure next to me _had_ to have heard it. My mouth gaped, falling open in a silent scream as the only things that left my raw throat were pitiful breathy cries and spittle filled with blood. I could neither fight nor flight, and it left me with ice in my veins as terror wrapped its similarly icy arms around me, capturing me.

A beat of silence filled the room, my heart beat subsided, I stopped gasping from my mouth, and I watched the figure drop to a knee to inspect me closer. From what I could see, the entire damn thing was black. The color of a horrific void. And just like a void would, the black figure devoured everything around it. Devoured my horror, devoured my agony, devoured every shred of my attention. It was like a man, but it was no man. It was a monster, a beast, a demon.

It reached a hand towards my face, cradling my jaw with its palm while rubbing a cotton covered thumb gently across my chin. Its tender touch was something I’d find otherwise relieving, but for a reason I couldn’t recall, it only terrified me further. I could hear its breath, muffled but loud nonetheless. Suddenly, its hold tightened, gripping my jaw harder until a dull pain spread throughout the skin. It tilted my head upwards to look directly at its face.

Blue.

A blue oval with two large black gaping holes that shed tears of onyx. With one hand forcing me to continue staring, it reached up to grab the end of its blue face, pulling it up to reveal a true terror. A wide-open mouthed smile, showcasing its sharpened teeth.

When I shot up from my bed, my mouth was already open and releasing blood curdling screams. The blankets fell down to my ankles and I thrashed around on the bed. I looked down at my body. I was still in my pastel blue patients’ gown, my leg and arm still wrapped securely in a hard cast. My screams didn’t die down, they only paused for a split second whenever I sucked in a lungful of air.

“(Y/N)!” I shot my eyes to the voice, watching Jack burst from the door connecting his bedroom to the infirmary. The second I saw that damn mask, I only got more frantic.

“No! No no no! Get away, get the fuck away from me!” I screamed out, my voice painfully shrill.

He made a move to walk closer to me, and my body kicked into motion. I ignored the ache my injuries made and threw myself over the short railing on the side of the bed. I felt the needle connecting me to an IV drip rip out of my arm, tearing the medical tape used to keep it down as well as a bit of my skin. I tumbled over clumsily but managed to land on my feet. Just like Jack had a couple days prior when the proxies upset me, I had sandwiched myself between the bed and the cold wall.

He threw his hands up to chest-height, palms facing me in a surrendering gesture. “Okay (Y/N), I really need you to just calm down and tell me what happened.”

As if he didn’t fucking know.

It came back like a dream, revealing itself to me once I had fallen asleep, but I knew better. It was no dream. It was a memory, a deeply repressed one. It was a memory from the beginning, from when I first was forced to serve as an aid to Eyeless Jack before becoming a proxy. There were either two reasons the memory had been repressed, one: the memories and actions surrounding what happened caused my brain to block out said memories. What I remembered was only a snippet of what I must’ve gone through, and now that I had a little bit of access to that snippet, I felt like there was a hole where other memories were missing. While that was incredibly likely, another scenario that was likely was Slenderman purposely blocking my memories with his magic or whatever. I’d heard stories of him doing things like that before to proxies, especially if his means of recruiting them were a harsher than usual. He would block those memories, that way the newly turned proxy wouldn’t be disloyal because of what had happened, what _he_ had done to them.

Regardless of what repressed the memories, the fact still remained that they were there, and now very prevalent. There was no part in me that doubted if it was a dream or a memory, it was just like recalling the name of an old friend. An ‘ah-ha’ moment of realization. It must’ve been because I was spending so much time stuck in this damn infirmary recently that I recalled that sliver of a memory. The location of such a traumatic event forced my brain to drag the horrid memories back to my consciousness, pulling them out of their hiding spot. But I’d ponder on that later, for now, I had to deal with Jack.

I hadn’t noticed that I stopped screaming, but I was still hyperventilating. Even though I knew I was going to eventually faint from how quickly I was breathing and how light my head was getting, I couldn’t regain enough control of my body to stop myself. My brain was stuck focusing on other small things, not wanting to confront the elephant in the room. I focused on the ticklish sensation of blood trickling down my arm from where I ripped out the IV, along with the dull sting that accompanied it. I focused on how parched my throat felt after breathing and screaming so much had caused it to dry out, I really wanted some water. But neither of those things were nearly as important to me as the masked demon standing just a couple meters away.

“Just- just leave. Go and leave me the fuck alone!” I shouted back at him.

“You know I can’t do that, you’re a danger to yourself right now-”

“ _Bullshit,_ ” I seethed, “You’re more dangerous to me than anything else.”

“What-” he began before I cut him off, obviously confused.

“I remember now, I finally remember. I can’t believe I forgot how much of a piece of shit you are. How you treated me.”

“What on Earth are you talking about (Y/N)?”

“ _Shut up!_ I never want to hear my name leave your filthy mouth ever-fucking again, you vile son of a..”

“What the absolute fuck is going on down here?” I heard a man yell from the hallway, before the door slammed open, hitting the wall beside it harshly. Jeff appeared behind it, for once not wearing his iconic white hoodie and instead a black tee-shirt.

“I honestly don’t know, she just started screaming.” Jack turned his head away from me, still keeping his hands raised.

“You think I don’t know that? She woke half the damn mansion up!” He growled before making eye contact with me, “Pretty damn impressive set of lungs you got there, Jack’s room is the farthest from anywhere fuckin’ else so we don’t have to hear his victims.”

The thought of more people facing his brutality sent a cold shiver down my spine.

“Cut the crap Jeff, are you going to help me or not?”

“Help you with what? Both of you stay the fuck away from me!” I screeched, pressing myself back as hard as I could into the corner, wishing I could just go through it.

“Have you lost your fuckin’ mind? We’re not here to hurt you, dumbass.” Jeff directed at me.

“She’s not going to listen to you obviously. I’m going to need your help to restrain her, then I’m going to inject her with a weak sedative to knock her out.”

No, no not again.

Memories flooded my head from the torture I faced recently. The feeling of being strapped and forced into a wooden chair while being stabbed and injected with needles containing god-knows-what plagued me. I watched as Jeff and Jack shared a few more words with each other, obviously their plan for how to deal with me. But I just couldn’t hear it, the mix of the fact that they were whispering and that my breathing was so loud and ragged had covered the sound of their voices. But when the both of them looked towards me at once, I braced myself for the worst.

Jeff was the first one to charge, running straight towards me until he reached the foot of the bed and easily curved around it. He was between the wall and bed now with me. I was focused on him, and immediately placed my hands on the bed’s railing and got ready to vault my body onto the mattress. I was intercepted though. The second my knees crashed on the bed before the rest of my body, Jack wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into his chest. It was the most aggressive hug ever, probably because it wasn’t a hug at all. I shoved my fists into his shoulders, punching him as hard as I could with my small range of movement. I didn’t land any of them though and judging by the fact that Jack felt like a damn brick wall told me that my failed attempts probably didn’t hurt him all that much.

After staying in his forced embrace for a few seconds, I felt my legs swing into the air as Jack yanked my body off the bed, only to drop me back onto it. The action forced all the air from my lungs, and I felt like an overturned turtle as I was stuck on my back and unable to move. I heard Jack yell for Jeff to grab something but missed what because I involuntarily wheezed to replace the air in my empty lungs. I heard a small _click_ and felt something close around my ankle. The bastard, the bleached one that is, had clipped something akin to a handcuff around the ankle not covered by a cast. I flailed hysterically, jostling my body from side to side in an attempt to escape. I casted Jack a glance right as he was doing the same thing Jeff had done but to my non-injured wrist. Before I could react however, he snapped it shut. When he went to grab my other wrist, I yanked it away before he could get it. I continued my flailing, until my hand had landed especially hard against Jack’s mask. I heard a dull _rip_ , and only a second later his navy-blue mask fell from his face, the strap that had secured it had torn.

His face looked just like it had in my memory. Dark gray skin, razor-sharp teeth, and gaping holes for eyes that leaked black. His face was shocked momentarily as his mask slid from his face and clattered as it hit the floor, but his surprised expression didn’t last long. He narrowed his sockets in determination, successfully capturing my arm as I let out a little cry at the painful jolt it gave me.

I let out a mirthless chuckle, breathy even to my own ears. “There you are. You stopped hiding you fucking _monster_.”

You know that feeling you get when you know you fucked up? When dread makes your stomach drop like an anvil thrown into the ocean? Yeah, well I got that feeling the second the word ‘monster’ left my lips. I watched Jack’s features morph back into shock, lasting a few seconds. Even Jeff had stopped wrestling with my leg to secure it and stared at Jack with eyes wider than I ever had seen from the lidless man. A few beats of silence passed; no one was even breathing. Then it happened, like the flip of a switch. His lips pulled back in a terrifying snarl, his sockets narrowing in an eyeless glare. He let go of my wrist, pulling his fist back behind his before delivering a solid punch right to my right eye. The first knuckles of his fingers hit the bottom of my eye socket, the bone beneath my eye, while the knuckles of his fist collided with my brow bone, the top of the socket. The punch shot my head back into the pillow, and I immediately felt a burning sensation surround where Jack’s fist was. That was _definitely_ gonna leave a mark. I kept my eyes closed, still in shock from the sock to the face, but I could hear the scuffle in the room.

Jeff was now near Jack was, or at least I assumed that. He kept repeating things like how it ‘wasn’t worth it’ and that ‘they’re gonna kick your ass if you beat on her’. His low warnings were joined by Jack’s grunts, and I could piece together that Jeff was probably holding him back, something I was silently thankful for. It took them a minute, but eventually the noises died down Jack breathily barked ‘I’m cool, I’m good! Now get the hell off of me!’ Yeah, I didn’t believe that for a second.

I tried opening both of my eyes, but eventually had to settle on keeping the right one closed. It burned like hell, and opening it only made it leak tears I didn’t even know were built up. I tilted my head to the side where the two men were, seeing both of them disheveled. Jack’s hood was down, and his copper hair was pointing every which way. Jeff’s hair was in a similar but less messy state, but the collar of his tee-shirt had been stretched, going a noticeable inch further down his chest than it did before. Jack was at his medicine counter, haphazardly grabbing and slamming things around. Jeff just stood near the door, catching his breath while watching the both of us.

Jack finished whatever he was doing, walking towards me with a syringe as he lightly pressed the plunger until the liquid squirted out of the needle to ensure there were no bubbles. I didn’t resist, I was honestly too scared to try. His mask was still off, his face enraged while he looked at me. With the hand not holding the syringe, he roughly grabbed my forearm, still bloody from where the IV was torn out of it. Just an inch above the bloody spot, Jack jabbed me with the needle _way_ harder than he needed to, probably relishing in the pained face I made. Just as harshly as he had jabbed it in, he tugged the syringe back out and stomped away. He said he was going to inject me with some light sedative earlier, but he must’ve changed his mind. Less than a few minutes after the injection, I started to feel the familiar sensation of falling, like I had been casted off a cliff. Except there was no bottom of the chasm where my body would crash, just the void of unconsciousness that I disappeared into.


End file.
